Posted on 05/28/2014 1:14:13 AM PDT by nickcarraway
There was a moment at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 when Soviet ships approached to within just a few miles of a U.S. naval blockade and then, at the last minute, turned back — prompting then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk to utter one of the most famous lines from the Cold War: “We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.”
The crisis in Ukraine never threatened a Cold War-like nuclear Armageddon, but it may be the first case of post-post-Cold War brinkmanship, pitting the 21st century versus the 19th. It pits a Chinese/Russian worldview that says we can take advantage of 21st-century globalization whenever we want to enrich ourselves, and we can behave like 19th-century powers whenever we want to take a bite out of a neighbor — versus a view that says, no, sorry, the world of the 21st century is not just interconnected but interdependent and either you play by those rules or you pay a huge price.
In the end, it was Putinism versus Obamaism, and I’d like to be the first on my block to declare that the “other fellow” — Putin — “just blinked.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
An Obama idolator treating himself to a nice fantasy. Putin still pockets Crimea. That’s worth everything this has cost him and more. Look at the map!
Friedman showing everyone that he is on drugs.
>> In the end, it was Putinism versus Obamaism
As far as I can tell, Putin isn’t interested in that kind of thing.
Plus Russia and China just settled on a historic energy agreement.
Soviet ships were rust buckets.. AND JFK was a moron..
INTIMIDATED_BY_MOM_JEANS_PING!
Let’s add it up: Putin’s seizure of Crimea has weakened the Russian economy, led to China getting a bargain gas deal, revived NATO, spurred Europe to start ending its addiction to Russian gas and begun a debate across Europe about increasing defense spending. Nice work, Vladimir. That’s why I say the country Putin threatens most today is Russia.
... made a mockery of Obama’s Russia Reset, strengthened Republican Hawks.
Yep ZERO won. . . . . . . . . . . /s
What made Putin blink was the Ukrainians. Not only are they stacking up Russian GRU bodies in the morgue, but they successfully outsmarted the Russkies in the propaganda war. Ukraine still has a long road ahead of it, but if they maintain their fighting spirit, they have a chance. They can’t expect help from the West, only hindrance.
Exactly.
Tommy Friedman thinks he understands the world, but he's just another liberal moron!
Adolf Hitler blinked when he militarized the Rhineland...
Adolf Hitler blinked when he annexed Austria...
Adolf Hitler blinked when he occupied Czechoslovakia...
It’s good when your adversaries blink.
How could he have blinked when he got everything he wanted?
“There was a moment at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 when Soviet ships approached to within just a few miles of a U.S. naval blockade and then, at the last minute, turned back”
The BS from the Camelot myth was that Kennedy stood strong against the Soviets; the truth is that a deal was made where we would withdraw our missiles from Turkey (too close to them) in exchange for them withdrawing theirs from Cuba (too close to us).
No, I think that it was Truman in 1946 and the early Atomic Energy Commission (which morphed into the Department of Energy).
Also, despite Friedman's claim that NATO is "revitalized", they won't be offering Ukraine membership anytime soon.
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