Russia has invaded Ukraine. If you were the US President how do you respond?

If we're so concerned with what other European countries think, what are we doing bothering being in that theater?

WWMD - what would Mexico do?

WWCD - what would Canada do?

mistaken identity wrote:

Well I got the usual "Obama is weak, Reagan is awesome" posts but no real feedback on what Reagan or a strong President would do.

Nobody can answer that hypothetical question. You're just your typical Obama loving liberal trying to lead the people into the answer you want to hear, nuke em all!. But you're not going to get that so you can stop wasting your time.

Nobody knows what options are available, who's thinking what. For all we know this has been in the makings for a long time by several countries. This whole overthrow could be an intentional act orchestrated by western powers. Dont you think the timing is pretty telling? Right at the time of the olympics being held in Russia! The allied powers probably planned this to happen now. They probably wanted to act sooner but put it off to coincide with the olympics thinking Russia would be less apt to act if the whole world was watching whle Russia tries to put it's best face on for the olympics.

I know one thing and there's no doubt about this. When you plan things like this or it just occurs, you're much better off when you're acting from a position of strength than weakness. We'd be 100 times better off if Reagan or even Romney were president. They are perceived as much stronger leaders than Obama will ever be. And no that does't mean we'd be going to war. It simply means when you're playing a game of chess with world powers you need your opponents to respect and fear you. If not your position is already weakened and the threat of war is far greater.

respectfully disagree wrote:

What we would have to do is kick Russia out of Ukraine and keep them out

I guess Putin would be OK with that.

respectfully disagree wrote:

which has been done.

When did the Ukranian kick the Russian military out of the Ukraine?

Easy … ask Bush for his assessment of Putin .. oh, that's right, he's on record, as recently as 2010, as saying how he (Bush) sea Putin's soul, how Putin is trustworthy, etc, etc

"“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy... I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country.”"

Right on.

When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, Bush and Cheney were in power. Why did'nt the righties call on Bush to do something then ?

Bloody hypocrites !

If Russia and Ukraine want to go to war then let them. America still has a lot of issues ti deal with in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I would not even think about the ridiculous "option" of going to war over this. Not a realistic option in any sense.

But I'll tell you what I would do:

1) Pull out of the G8 summit in Sochi

2) Restart missile defense plans in Eastern Europe

3) Accelerate Georgia's entry into NATO

4) Sanction top Russian officials (starting with Putin) including visa bans, asset freezes, and associated international scorn

5) Pull out of ALL international events that the Russians would be attending and strongly encourage the leaders of friendly foreign powers (Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia...) to do likewise.

K5 wrote:

mistaken identity wrote:

Well I got the usual "Obama is weak, Reagan is awesome" posts but no real feedback on what Reagan or a strong President would do.

I honestly believe Obama was high and passed out when Benghazi happened. He missed National Security meetings recently. I really think he may be back on coke and Biden should be in charge. Yikes - I actually said Biden should be in charge.

I honestly believe that you're retarded.

What about when he killed Osama Bin-Laden?

Putin knows that whether Obama, McCain, Romney or the corpse of Reagan were President Americans do not want to go to war with Russia over the Crimea. Putin is a smart guy and a bit of an arrogant risk taker so he would have gone into Ukraine no matter what.

Now Obama does have some options that could make Putin's life a bit harder such as (1) recruiting former Soviet bloc nations into NATO, (2) building up missile defense systems in countries close to Russia and (3) training and providing equipment to Ukrainian troops in order to try to fight off Russia.

But the dislike for Obama is so intense right now among some segments of the population that he can do basically no right. If Obama sent troops into Ukraine right now Republicans would say we shouldn't be getting involved, if Obama didn't do anything they would all him weak and if Obama did the three things I said above and took more action later they would say he wasn't doing enough.

The UK could have the same scenario next year, should Scotland go independent.

The security of our Sub bases would be under threat from various dissatisfied factions the UK has encountered over the years as Mr Salmond (Scottish Nationalist Party leader )would no doubt have an open house policy to encourage immigration as Scotland would have no currency of its own.

Mr Cameron would have to secure Naval bases et al at the same time as supporting Ukraine independence backed by Neo Nazi's!

**Breaking News: UK has withdrawn from the G8 in Sochi, and will not be sending in a Government representative to the Paralympic Games in protest to Mr Putin's securing of his countries defence.

Irony all round me thinks.

This is all Robert Kraft's fault. Putin took that pudgy candy ass's ring, and now he feels he's entitled to whatever else he wants. You have to set limits, like when training a dog.

R2D3 wrote:

America would lose a war with Russia.

How'd Russia do against Afghanistan?

Tomasz Brady wrote:

This is all Robert Kraft's fault. Putin took that pudgy candy ass's ring...

False.

Randy Oldman wrote:

What about when he killed Osama Bin-Laden?

Don't you remember? He was in the war room with Biden and Hillary monitoring every bit of action. When Benghazi happened he stayed in bed.

Recall the USSR, UK, and USA all agreed to seize Palestine in 1947 for holocaust refugees, and to allow the USSR to control Eastern Europe. The old USSR released Eastern Europe almost 30 years ago.

Today Russia wants the USA to reciprocate and release Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan in the same manner.

If I was Obama I would propose releasing the Middle East if Russia releases Crimea, and allows Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Hungary, Baltic States, etc. to join the EU non-exclusively.

By non-exclusively I mean, Russia is not excluded and is allowed complete econnomic trade access to the said countries. That way Russia benefits as opposed to now where the EU wants to lock out Russia.

Also this does NOT mean those countries can join NATO. That discussion is for another day when heads have cooled down.

uk man wrote:

The UK could have the same scenario next year, should Scotland go independent.

Nobody cares what Europeans in England do. England doesn't matter in this conflict.

Let all the hot Ukraine women come to the US would be my first thing to do.

Can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet, but I'd guess distance runners don't excel at strategy and tactics if the often used sit-and-get-outkicked formulation is any indication.

The obvious play is to facilitate a Ukrainian conflict that will bog down the Russian military and its resources for a decade or more, then use this opportunity to settle the Syrian problem in our (read: our mid-east allies) favor. The result would be favorable conditions and advancement of our policies in the mideast, and in particular toward the problem of Iran. Fuck Russia, fuck the russian satellite countries. Seriously, what is to be gained from any of that other than using it to our benefit in more valuable areas of foreign policy that Russia is currently obstructing. Ukraine and eastern Europe is the concern of the Europeans.

This is the tactic the Russians or the Chinese would pursue if the shoe were on the other foot. In fact, it's the tactic they've been using for the last decade as we drag our dick through the sands of Afghanistan.

Speaking from a place of relative ignorance (although I do keep up with the news and read analysis of what's happening, nothing can replace the knowledge and experience that Obama and his advisors have), I think I would definitely stay away from military action (I think it's kind of weird that this is even being discussed...) but I would do my best to get Georgia into NATO and sanction the heck out of Russia. Russia's economy isn't so great as it is, and sanctions could have quite an effect.

I also probably wouldn't have been as blunt as Obama was in warning Russia not to take military action. Obviously, literally hours after that warning Putin asked for and Russia's legislature provided authorization for military force. You don't say something that you're not going to back up. This doesn't necessarily have to be military at all (in fact it shouldn't!), but there does need to be action behind what he says.

I think this crisis is about WAY more than Ukraine. I think it was 1994 (?) when it was decided that Crimea was part of Ukraine, and Putin simply disregarding that now essentially means that any treaty or agreement Russia made in 1994 is irrelevant, which could have pretty disastrous consequences. He's way out of line, and should be both told that and meant to feel it.