Posted on 02/05/2015 2:26:31 PM PST by goldstategop
So here’s Obama’s opinion: Ukraine should not get military aid from the West because even with American help, Russia would still mop the floor with them. And this, according to the Times, is what Obama thinks will intimidate Putin into signing a peace treaty. I’ll offer the president some free advice: telling Putin the world is too weak to stop him isn’t very intimidating.
Yet even if the West got Putin to sign on to a new agreement, nothing will have been accomplished. Putin has been violating the last ceasefire agreement, because there’s no one to enforce it. What Obama, Merkel, and Hollande are working for, then, is a non-solution–an agreement that would allow everyone involved to pretend it’s more than it is, and which would implicitly (if not explicitly) accept Putin’s previous land grabs in Ukraine while asking him nicely–on the honor system–to stop taking more land.
You can see what bothers the Ukrainians about this. They are at war, and high-level delegations from France, Germany, and the United States all flew in to tell them, personally, that they’re a lost cause. They either don’t realize it or don’t seem to care, but three major Western powers just went out of their way to ostentatiously humiliate their besieged ally on the world stage.
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
In the scenario we are talking about, I don’t think that the legal methods would be used, it would be an upfront coup with no time wasted.
I suspected that's what you meant. The problem is that said generalissimo will lose any and all popular support when the people figure out the implications. Yes, I know, they'll be happy to be alive, at first.
I think the American people would have other priorities in mind, like swift unrelenting revenge. Rightly or wrongly, it would simply be a lead, follow, or get out of the way situation. I expect that any official who fails to beat the drums of total war would find themselves out of a job, at the very least.
I think you over-estimate the ruggedness of our JIT supply chain infrastructure, or how little excess delivery capacity we have with which to deal with partial interruptions of basic utilities, such as electrical power for pumping fuel.
No, after a massive nuclear attack of any kind, the people of this country will be quite occupied with the social meltdown of base survival without provisions, and their leaders with them. Consider Katrina, or "Super-Storm Sandy," which would be nothing by comparison. I don't think most cities could last two weeks, particularly with our emergency services infrastructure stretched in all directions.
Rather, I should have said that people will have two agendas on their mind. First is survival, the second is revenge. The Navy can take care of the latter while the rest of .gov does what it can to help out on the homefront. However bad we may suffer, our enemies would probably suffer a lot worse. Given that our potential enemy nations are much more fragile than we are.
Given the sensitivity of this country to EMP, I don't buy that assessment.
An EMP attack would certainly be bad, but an enemy nation could expect the same. A retaliatory EMP strike would level the playing field, so that the people of America wouldn’t be the only ones suffering. Russia and China are already too big to build and maintain proper infrastructure, and the Chinese need food imports to stay afloat. At least Americans have the disposable income and free time to prepare for disasters, and the opportunity to organize a neighborhood/town defense, etc.
At least Americans have the disposable income and free time to prepare for disasters, and the opportunity to organize a neighborhood/town defense, etc.
The current circumstances of the middle class don't suggest you are dealing in reality. Those who are suffering will come after those who are not, and they have guns too. As to food, this nation has been a net importer since about the year 2000. At any time, we typically have no more than a few weeks worth of inventory.
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