Are We Misunderstanding Russia? (Putin, Congress, Iraq, middle east)
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Russia has lots of land, but due to their geography they are paranoid about securing and keeping their water lanes open - especially with warm water ports.
Anyone who has taken a Russian history class in college knows that Russia's foreign policy revolves around these water lanes for centuries. From wars with neighboring countries to political diplomacy - Russia has for centuries been driven by these vital needs.
One of these key strategic areas is the warm water navy base that Russia has in Syria - provided to them by Assad. Russia wants to maintain Assad, to secure this warm water navy base. Is it not surprising if Russia would act aggressively as they have for centuries to secure such navy bases?
Why is Putin involved in Crimea? What is a better answer? To secure vital water lanes OR as Hillary said that Putin was emulating Hitler? Doesn't that lack understanding on Hillary's part to just say it is because Putin = Hitler?
Why are Russia and the United States at such odds at the moment?
We arguably were too friendly with Russia in 2012 with (1) Obama offering Putin more flexibility after the election for not making any big waves before the election and (2) Obama blasting Romney for correctly calling Russia a geo-political adversary. So what happened?
Russia wants to secure its warm water port in Syria and Assad in power is the safest way to secure it.
Look at US foreign policy...Bush creates a power vacuum in Iraq, Obama creates a power vacuum in Libya, increases the power vacuum in Iraq, and then demands that Assad step down that would (A) likely create another power vacuum and (B) possibly cost Russia its vital warm water port.
Instead of working with Russia to destroy ISIS in Syria - we go at odds with Russia by initially demanding that Assad must step down.
We shouldn't cave into Russia at every turn, but we should understand Russia's thoughts and desires when confronting them in the Middle East and elsewhere, besides just saying that they are "Hitler."
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Well, I'm one of those that isn't sure Assad is the only villain here. As far as I'm concerned they are both bad. The US originally supported the Free Syrian Army, which was formed from ordinary Syrian civilians who fought back against the Assad Regime after they protested against the regimes treatment of the populace and Assad responded by killing them. Unfortunately the terrorists melded in with the fighting against the regime. As a result, people blurred the lines between the FSA and Al-Qaeda. And you hear very little of the original freedom fighters.
If the rebels were ever once freedom fighters. It’s clear that they aren’t anymore. The evidence of them committing their own share of atrocities have been mounting since the start. Though I think Syria could stand for a more competent leader; It seems he is the only option Syria has. If the other options are warmongering terrorist groups that want to turn the nation into a fascist theocracy then it’s no wonder his support from the populace is returning and the threat to Russia and the waterways is very recognizable.
I am not frightened by the Russians and feel what they are doing is only to preserve their economy. I can imagine what the US would do if terrorists were trying to overthrow the Mexican gov't. We'd be in there locked and loaded on the premise of protecting Mexico's democracy when what we were really doing is protecting our own economy and assets.
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Are We Misunderstanding Russia?
I think many understand perfectly well that Putin is a KGB thug whose reaction to those who oppose him, depending on the depth of that opposition, can be anything up to and including murder and that he is a man to never be trusted.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by burdell
Are We Misunderstanding Russia?
I think many understand perfectly well that Putin is a KGB thug whose reaction to those who oppose him, depending on the depth of that opposition, can be anything up to and including murder and that he is a man to never be trusted.
Sorry he may be a KGB thug - but we have our own share of thugs in govt here. Let's take the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal, how about Benghazi and the real reason we were there and why what went down was because of something we shouldn't have been doing in the first place. We've had plenty of our own "mysterious" deaths on American soil. Our gov't is not all cupcakes and roses and has done it's fair share of "questionable" actions.
Russia has lots of land, but due to their geography they are paranoid about securing and keeping their water lanes open - especially with warm water ports.
Anyone who has taken a Russian history class in college knows that Russia's foreign policy revolves around these water lanes for centuries. From wars with neighboring countries to political diplomacy - Russia has for centuries been driven by these vital needs.
We shouldn't cave into Russia at every turn, but we should understand Russia's thoughts and desires when confronting them in the Middle East and elsewhere, besides just saying that they are "Hitler."
On the other hand we have been fully aware of Russia's desire to ADDITIONAL ports in better locations.
But lets us not pretend they need them. They have ports on both coasts, but lack the fleets and the money to maintain anything vaguely approaching a global projection on the scale required.
Furthermore, russia has land access to virtually the entire world excluding the America's.
minerals, markets are secure with or without naval bases in every ocean..
I would add, Russia is run by thugs, not by diplomat, they seek to push into europe to rebuild thier "buffer" maybe we should take over mexico as a "buffer". Why not India pushing into its neighboring nations for security reasons.
Nope we need not seek to understand russia anymore than we already do.
Russia is being made an "enemy" because it's useful to the Democrats and the Establishment MSM which supports them.
There is nothing more too it than that.
Thank you. Don't we already have about 3 dozen "let's bash Russia" threads already? How many bash Russia threads do we need? Certainly anything and everything pertaining to Russia, Putin has already been discussed over and over again. Even if this thread wasn't intended to be a "let's bash Russia thread" surely it's going to end up as one.
Probably. We seem to misunderstand most countries. That's why we're mired in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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