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Both the Russians and the Ukrainians deny this threat was made now.
As for the US response, of course there is no military option that would be appropriate on our part. This and all future conflicts in the future will be settled through financial "warfare". Just like conventional warfare, your response has to be measured. You don't fire the financial nukes on the first day as some boneheads in Congress are demanding. There are consequences that need to be weighed. Western Europe, for now, is not in favor of any serious financial sanctions preferring to jawbone this for a while and try diplomacy. Why? Russia holds the gas spigot to Europe. By the same token, Russia has little to gain by cutting off the gas. It would be devastating for their economy. They can have their way with Crimea through diplomatic means probably anyway. So Obama is pursuing the right strategy now which is to listen to all the players, weigh the options and react INTELLIGENTLY when the situation demands it - not when the nutters start pulling their hair out.
So do you advocate committing US troops to war against Russia? Is that what you're saying?
Do you actually have anything to add that has to do with the implications, strategy, and potential solutions to the situation... or are you just wasting time turning everything into yet another "let's bash Obama" thread?
Barack Obama: Putin's Personal Rag Doll - The Evidence
Quote:
The crisis in Ukraine has brought out a fresh round of critics of President Obama's foreign policy who see a pattern emerging: the president tries to assert his authority and direct events on the world stage with empty threats, which inevitably have no follow through. With each instance, U.S. power grows weaker as foreign powers view Mr. Obama as the president who cried wolf.
"Stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators; it is not your strong suit," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. advised the president on CNN's "State of the Union." "Every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine. We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression."
Yes, liberals, you have permission to stop defending this worthless, weakling President.
And despite the mocking tone adopted by those who think that boycotting the G8 meeting and freezing Russian assets are pathetically weak attempts to force their hero Putin to rethink his violation of Ukrainian sovereignty: The G8 summit (in Sochi) is yet another one of Putin's vanity projects, just like the Olympics -- during which he was all over Russian TV, all day, every day. Putin is desperate to portray Russia as a civilized country with a seat at the grown-ups' table, but invading your neighbor on the flimsiest of pretexts is not exactly the best way to do that.
And the Magnitsky List produced howls of outrage among the Russian oligarchs who form Putin's main base of support. If the US and Europe were to give Russia the full Iran treatment, Putin's corrupt cronies would be shrieking for relief faster than Sarah Palin rushed to say "I told ya so, you betcha!".
In fact, just the threat of an asset freeze could be enough to cause a stampede of wealth out of the country, causing the ruble to collapse and crashing the Russian economy (again). Something to think about for those of you who admire Putin for being a master chess player.
Lol, first of all I don't think Putin cares what Europe or the U.S. thinks of him. Second of all the Europe/U.S. needs Russia more than Russia needs them. Putin has Obama and the EU by the balls.
"From Putin's standpoint, he's in the catbird seat. He's put himself in a position where we need him in terms of the Syrian chemical (weapons) deal. We need him in terms of the Iranian nuclear program," Gates, who served as defense secretary from 2006 to 2011, said in a telephone interview with Reuters."
"We need the Russians in terms of getting our (military) equipment out of Afghanistan."
"Indeed, the European Union is not expected to match the United States in threatening sanctions against Russia when its foreign ministers meet to discuss Ukraine on Monday, instead pushing for mediation between Moscow and Kiev, officials say."
"Russia is the EU's most important trading partner after the United States and China, with 123 billion euros ($170 billion) of goods exported there in 2012. It is also the EU's most important single supplier of energy products, accounting for more than a quarter of all EU consumption of oil and gas."
China is building there military knowing we want to cut ours so I wouldn't be surprised if China moves into Taiwan. We won't do anything just as we won't with Ukraine.
How do you, personally know so much? Wouldn't all the information you are putting out about US intentions be highly classified? Arn't you afraid that the Secret Service will arrest you for disclosing all our state secrets concerning our future intentions? When are these strategy meetings that you get to sit in on. I'd like to come.
Or is your depiction of US intentions so much fantasy, that just exist in that 6" of airspace between your ears?
Actually Clint Eastwood was right about the empty chair. It wouldn't make any difference to the summit if Obozo is there or not.
But obozo must be very conflicted. On the one hand they are supposed to see the disloyal ethnic Russian traitors in Ukraine as a problem, but liberals and Democrats rely on the votes of illegal aliens, anchor babies, and others who live in America yet do not consider themselves Americans and are loyal to foreign countries or to their own races before they are loyal to the US. Just look at the push for the illegal alien Dream Act. most Mexicans living in the US are like the ethnic Russians in Ukraine, they do not consider the US to be their country and are not loyal citizens yet many are allowed to vote. I am saying this as the son of LEGAL Asian immigrants.
It gets better, way back in 1997 then Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo gave a speech in Chicago where he said that "the Mexican nation extends beyond it's territorial boundaries" - very similar to what Tsar Putin has been saying regarding Ukraine over the past week or so.
China is building there military knowing we want to cut ours so I wouldn't be surprised if China moves into Taiwan. We won't do anything just as we won't with Ukraine.
I think it would be a good opportunity under Obama.
Lol, first of all I don't think Putin cares what Europe or the U.S. thinks of him. Second of all the Europe/U.S. needs Russia more than Russia needs them. Putin has Obama and the EU by the balls.
"From Putin's standpoint, he's in the catbird seat. He's put himself in a position where we need him in terms of the Syrian chemical (weapons) deal. We need him in terms of the Iranian nuclear program," Gates, who served as defense secretary from 2006 to 2011, said in a telephone interview with Reuters."
"We need the Russians in terms of getting our (military) equipment out of Afghanistan."
"Indeed, the European Union is not expected to match the United States in threatening sanctions against Russia when its foreign ministers meet to discuss Ukraine on Monday, instead pushing for mediation between Moscow and Kiev, officials say."
"Russia is the EU's most important trading partner after the United States and China, with 123 billion euros ($170 billion) of goods exported there in 2012. It is also the EU's most important single supplier of energy products, accounting for more than a quarter of all EU consumption of oil and gas."
The UK has already said military action is not on their table and not being discussed.
Only diplomatic or economic action.
The US is the only one acting like a rabid dog on a leash in the ring waiting to be set free.
No other country is as vocal as us with the "threats" to Russia.
We're making *sses out of ourselves just like we did with Syria.
And where's Biden in all this ? Wasn't he the professed great "foreign affairs expert" ?
Oh yeah..he's in AZ trying to get Canadian citizens on vacation signed up for Obamacare
The only "interesting" thing coming out of this is that the defense minister who relayed this "threat" earlier is now changing his story and the new PM in Kiev has no comment on it and Russia came out and denied they issued any threats at all.
You really think a war can be started soly by a single low level naval officer accused of making this threat ?
Now Gazprom is threatening Europe, following Kerry's comments “isolate Russia economically,” crash the rouble and impose other crippling sanctions.
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Barack Obama: Putin's Personal Rag Doll - The Evidence
