Posted on 12/30/2017 7:07:02 AM PST by BeadCounter
Interview with [then Senator] Jeff Sessions: U.S. and Europe “Have to Unify” Against Russia
March 26, 2015
excerpt...
What do you expect next from Russia?
Sessions: Well, there’s a danger that they may continue this overreach. They just solidified power in Georgia, in South Ossetia. That was I think in the last week. Pressure is still on Ukraine. We don’t know whether the Minsk Agreement will hold, I don’t think it’s holding very well now.
We have the Estonians, the Lithuanians, the Romanians, they’re very worried. This is reality, I wish it weren’t, but I’m afraid it is. It needs to be clear that Russia knows that there will be a high price to pay if this behavior continues.
If Minsk breaks down, at what point does the president have to act and supply Ukraine with lethal weaponry? What is the breaking point? We know from what Victoria Nuland said that the administration hasn’t decided yet.
Sessions: From what I understand from this conference, I think it’s clear that Germany has said publicly that they will support harsher sanctions and more military support if the Minsk Agreement fails. And that will be key.
Merkel has worked very very hard to establish a relationship with Putin and Russia. It’s been a good-faith effort. If it fails, I would hope that Europe and the United States would have to unify and push back more firmly against Russian overreach. ...”
or,
“In a Montgomery speech in March 2014...he [Sen Jeff Sessions] called for international scorn toward Russia for its aggressive actions in Ukraine and, before then, Georgia.
“I believe a systematic effort should be undertaken so that Russia feels pain for this,” Sessions said then. “Because if you don’t act now to make some sanctions against Russia then why will they believe in the future that we’re going to impose sanctions or do anything aggressive if they move forward to take all of Ukraine, all of Georgia?””
Sessions, not that long ago, was calling for more sanctions against an expansionist Russia that was rattling U.S. allies in Europe. And he regularly blamed the Obama administration for what he argued was an overly optimistic and weak foreign policy, including a decision to scale back planned missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland.
“There’s no good solution now. The bottle of milk has shattered on the floor and you can’t put it back together,” the Alabama senator said about relations with Russia in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea.
Sessions has also pointed to Russia’s record as justification for a robust missile defense system, which has deep roots in north Alabama.
“Russia’s recent actions in Georgia remind us that country, which we once hoped was on a path to greater integration into the global world community, might again be seeking to restore old Soviet ideas of dominance throughout their neighbors and in Eastern Europe, all of which should serve as a motivation to move ahead with the necessary capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies from missile attack, in particular,” Sessions said on the Senate floor in 2008.
Two years later, Sessions voted against the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, in part because he thought Obama conceded too much ground to the Russians.
“Just signing an agreement on a piece of paper does not create security,” Sessions said. “A consistent, principled, just approach to our legitimate national defense, advocated clearly and forthrightly without misunderstanding, is the best way to have security in this dangerous world.”
or,
Let’s try chem trails to off that little fat bastid. I’m sure Igor can brew up some fatal spray to administer to the West coast of North Korea.
Senator Ted Cruz on Russia and Syria...
“We can redouble our efforts to develop the defensive weapons that neutralized the offensive Soviet threat — particularly missile defense, which has seen a 25% budget reduction under Obama, according to an analysis from the conservative Heritage Foundation, and has been constrained by bad arms deals like New START.
We should not only move quickly to install the canceled interceptor sites Putin opposed in Poland and the Czech Republic, but also to develop the next generation of systems that will only increase his discomfiture.
These options do not entail a ground war in Syria, yet would effectively shake us free from the failed policies that have brought us to our current impasse.
These options set us on a new path that puts Putin on notice that the United States is reclaiming our traditional role as leader of the free world.”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html
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“What we’re seeing Putin in Russia do is a direct response to the profound weakness of Obama over six and a half years.
Putin views Obama as weak, as ineffective, and frankly, as a laughingstock. And, as a result, he is moving in, he is invading his neighbors, like Ukraine, he’s kidnapping Estonians, and he’s moving into Syria to gain a stronger foothold in the Middle East.”
https://www.tedcruz.org/news/icymi-cruz-we-have-no-business-getting-in-the-middle-of-the-syrian-civil-war-goal-should-be-to-defeat-isis/
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Ted Cruz:
“We need a coherent plan to address both the specific crisis in Syria and the challenge posed more broadly by Putin’s resurgent Russia.
The good news is that America still has options, if our leaders can summon the will to exercise them.
For starters, in Syria we can’t double down on the failed strategies that have given Putin his opportunity to intervene.
We are now two years out from President Obama’s proposed intervention after al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. ...”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html
Donald Trump: ‘Putin has eaten Obama’s lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time’
Mar 13, 2014
Eun Kyung Kim: TODAY SHOW (NBC)
Donald Trump slammed President Obama Thursday on TODAY for failing to take a stronger line against President Vladimir Putin in dealing with Ukraine, saying he feared Obama would now make up for lost time with imprudent moves to “show his manhood.”
The real estate mogul and reality-TV star, who has criticized Putin for sending military troops into Crimea, said Obama must now take fierce steps to prevent the situation from escalating further.
“We should definitely do sanctions and we have to show some strengths. I mean, Putin has eaten Obama’s lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time,” Trump said. ...”
http://www.today.com/news/donald-trump-putin-has-eaten-obamas-lunch-ukraine-2D79372098
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Here’s the interview w/ Matt Lauer on YouTube...
Donald Trump (2014): ‘Vladimir Putin Has Eaten Obama’s Lunch’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzURUENf1ns
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JULY 2017...
Trump, in Warsaw Speech, Criticizes Russia’s ‘Destabilizing’ Role in Ukraine, Syria
The president also reaffirmed his commitment to NATO’s mutual-defense pact
Jul 6, 2017
President Trump called Russia a “destabilizing” influence in Europe and the Middle East, and urged it to “join the community of responsible nations,” in his strongest remarks yet against the regime of Vladimir Putin, whom he is scheduled to meet Friday in Hamburg for the first time.
His remarks in Warsaw’s Krasinski Square, which marks the 1944 Warsaw uprising against the Nazis, came after the U.S. agreed to sell Patriot missiles to Poland. The president also used the opportunity to reiterate the NATO commitment to mutual defense, a declaration he did not make during the NATO summit in May, prompting consternation among U.S. allies wary of Russia’s ambitions.
“To those who would criticize our tough stance, I would point out that the United States has demonstrated—not merely with its words but with its actions—that we stand firmly behind Article 5, the mutual-defense commitment,” Trump said Thursday. “Words are easy, but actions are what matters. And for its own protection, Europe, and you know this, everybody knows this, everybody has to know this, Europe must do more.”
Trump has repeatedly said NATO members must spend more on defense—a position in line with past U.S. administrations. But he has been criticized because he appeared to suggest U.S. commitment to mutual defense was predicated on its allies’ defense spending. ...”
https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/07/trump-russia/532761/
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November 11, 2017, NPR
‘Asked Saturday whether he believes Putin’s denials, President Trump initially suggested the question of election interference needed to be set aside to focus on other concerns.
“Well, look, I can’t stand there and argue with him,” Trump said. “I would rather have him get out of Syria; I would rather get to work ... on the Ukraine.” And, “he could really help us on North Korea,” Trump pointed out.’
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/11/563481331/trump-putin-issue-joint-statement-on-defeating-syria
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Trump says NATO is obsolete but still ‘very important to me’
January 16, 2017
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said NATO was obsolete because it had not defended against terror attacks, but that the military alliance was still very important to him, The Times of London reported.
“I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete,” Trump told the newspaper in an interview. “It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right.”
Trump added that many NATO members were not paying their fair share for U.S. protection.
“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States,” Trump said. “With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much.”
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Feb 9, 2017:
Exclusive: In call with Putin, Trump denounced Obama-era nuclear arms treaty - sources
By Jonathan Landay and David Rohde
February 9, 2017
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the call.
When Putin raised the possibility of extending the 2010 treaty, known as New START, Trump paused to ask his aides in an aside what the treaty was, these sources said.
Trump then told Putin the treaty was one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration, saying that New START favored Russia. ...”
or,
There was a post a while ago concerning photos of NK missiles being paraded and noted that there was fiber wrapping around the circumference of the missile. This was pointed out as a major improvement. We also had reports that NK was planning to launch a satellite into geosynchronous orbit. NK is making major leaps in technology and is likely getting help from multiple sources. That’s collusion worthy of note.
You can bet your life that the Putin government is the main source behind NK’s big advances in missile technology.
Such a strike would take out 80-90% of the NORK hardware and kill or befuddle almost all of the troops manning it. The downsides- airbursts would not do the trick, so ground proximity or impact fusing would be required. It would result in massive amounts of fallout for somebody, depending upon wind direction and velocity. And such a strike would be very difficult to coordinate.
Not a good idea. Better to just kill Li'l Kim.
NK and Iran are pawns in Putin’s scheme to restore the evil empire.
I don’t trust the russians. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.
I trust the clintons even less. They’re the ones who lifted sanctions on NK in the 90’s, which allowed them to pick up with their nuclear program again. The
The south koreans didn’t help much either. NK is dug in and armed to the teeth with artillery along the border. Did they think that was going to be a problem that needed to be mitigated? Or are they going to rely on uncle sam to solve it for them?
Once the chia nork has a good nuke and a rocket to strap it to, he WILL use it. It’s just a matter of who he points it at.
A lot of crying wolf these days. Difficult to figure out what is truth and what are lies. Thank you Democrats.
We just don't want to be stupid about it like Obama.
Besides, I don't think that people want a war.
The NK is a perfect testing ground for Russian and Chinese weapons designs.
It must be understood by conservatives that the only way to resolve the Korea situation is a negotiated settlement with China that involves withdrawing all US military forces from the peninsula in exchange for a united Korea. Any other discussion is a waste of time and pure political theatre.
Or both Israel AND the United States...
This video exactly sums up and explains our dance with N Korea:
https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/946804642725449728
Buy yourself a clue.
Hardly the 'only' way.
Buy yourself some functioning brain cells. I provided a series of direct quotes from the highest levels of the Trump administration blasting Putin for his increasingly aggressive expansionist agenda in Eastern Europe and now the Middle East. They obviously ‘get’ that Putin is a serious threat. That plus he arms and stands firmly behind every US-hostile regime on the planet.
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