Joe Just Joe wrote:
Does anyone else find it amusing that the Russian troops are wearing uniforms without any Russian identifying markings? Do they think that folks don't know who they are?
very amusing. Clearly putin knows that photos of soldiers with russian flags killing people will be tweeted across the twitterverse...not a pretty sight.
agip wrote:
Joe Just Joe wrote:Does anyone else find it amusing that the Russian troops are wearing uniforms without any Russian identifying markings? Do they think that folks don't know who they are?
very amusing. Clearly putin knows that photos of soldiers with russian flags killing people will be tweeted across the twitterverse...not a pretty sight.
And he thinks that having them in unmarked uniforms is going to fool somebody? Seriously?
Read! wrote:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/03/world/europe/ukraine-tensions/index.html?c=mobile-homepage-tCnn reports Ukraine issued ultimatum. Crazy if true....Apparently Russia is yearning to kill off half it's male population again.
russia is denying the ultimatum.
My sense after much study is this:
1) The russian navy has its home southern port in ukrainian crimea, at sebastopol. This is not negotiable - Russia needs to keep that port open. it is understandable that the new west facing govt in kiev could be opposed to this, esp if they want to join NATO. The naval base has a lease til 2042, but is controversial in ukraine.
Putin needs to know that this port will not be taken away from him. Ever. Maybe a new 100 year lease or something like that could end some of this.
2)Putin also likes to stir things up in the old colonies, so they will move closer to russia than europe somehow. he's been doing this for a while. Not necessarily a permanent stirup here. Could end pretty quickly if he gets something like a guarantee of the safety of ethnic russians in east ukraine.
our best play is to be the good guys, with lots of money and energy and attention to places like Ukraine and Georgia which are under russian assault. Time is on our side - eventually russia will die as a power and the we need to be an alluring option as russia struggles to even feed its people.
Congratulate Putin on a game well played, and invite him over for a beer and a couple of chukkers.
I read this comment on CNN
"What they planned to do next remained unclear." as
"What they planned to do next remained nuclear."
How does Ukraine guarantee safety of Russians in Crimea? It seems like that was simply an excuse to invade, I haven't seen any evidence of targeted violence towards Russians. Does Russia have any other viable ports in the Black Sea? Seems odd they would rely so heavily on a leased base in a foreign country.
We sanction Russia. Inflict economic pain on them. Whatever aid we are currently supplying to Russia, gets cut-off immediately. No military action, we just sit and wait.
Read! wrote:
How does Ukraine guarantee safety of Russians in Crimea? It seems like that was simply an excuse to invade, I haven't seen any evidence of targeted violence towards Russians. Does Russia have any other viable ports in the Black Sea? Seems odd they would rely so heavily on a leased base in a foreign country.
it's a relic of the USSR and it's breakup. in the 50s the USSR ceded sebastopol (and the whole of crimea) to Ukraine, thinking it would never mean anything. Who could imagine the USSR breaking up?
But then the USSR broke up in 1991 and guess what - sebastopol belonged to the new independent Ukraine. There were fights over the port - many in Kiev wanted the russians out. But a treaty was negotiated for cheap natural gas in exchange for the port staying in russian hands.
how does ukraine guarantee safety of russians? Well they can't REALLY do that, but the safety of the russians in ukraine isn't really Putin's goal. he's happy to keep the threat of re-invasion as a gun pointed at Kiev for the next 20 years. So kiev stays with russia instead of europe.
and if there are anti-russian pogroms...well that would be great for Putin - he could send peacekeepers in without shame.
an interesting tinderbox is Kalingrad, a part of Russia separated from the homeland, next to Poland and Lithuania. keep an eye on that.
If I were POTUS wrote:
We sanction Russia. Inflict economic pain on them. Whatever aid we are currently supplying to Russia, gets cut-off immediately. No military action, we just sit and wait.
I don't know if it's this simple. Russia supplies a lot of Europe with natural gas. American trade with Russia is minimal.
With that said, there's an article in today's journal about the energy decentralization of the German economy. A mosaic approach involving renewables that will make them more and more resilient to geopolitics in the future and a more robust society. Why isnt America doing this?
I'm still waiting on some backers for the Mexico/Canada partial annexation.
If I were POTUS wrote:
We sanction Russia. Inflict economic pain on them. Whatever aid we are currently supplying to Russia, gets cut-off immediately. No military action, we just sit and wait.
Above is exactly what we did to japan before WWII. their response? They got so pissed off that they brought us into WWII. Or has everyone forgotten history?
Maybe we should do nothing. We aren't the world police.
The word of all words wrote:
If I were POTUS wrote:We sanction Russia. Inflict economic pain on them. Whatever aid we are currently supplying to Russia, gets cut-off immediately. No military action, we just sit and wait.
Above is exactly what we did to japan before WWII. their response? They got so pissed off that they brought us into WWII. Or has everyone forgotten history?
Maybe we should do nothing. We aren't the world police.
we sit and wait, but we become the best friends of Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, etc....
Get them on our side, show them the Sears Catalog if you know what I mean.
Putin can't match the magic of the rich western countries - we need to re-surround Russia with wealth and freedom and MTV.
I'm not sure LetsRun MB types can handle both world affairs and sarcasm at the same time.
Ya Ya Ya wrote:
M
Last time I checked, the Ukraine was not part of the US, so we should not get involved.
Last time I check Russia had a decent army. USA only fight countries with virtually no army and definitely no WMD so they will not get involved as that would take real balls
Like many others have said, we wait. We become friends with the former Soviet states and slowly surround Russia and isolate her further. I really think that long term Russia will become less and less of a threat as long as we just let her tire herself out by doing things like this.
buying time wrote:
Like many others have said, we wait. We become friends with the former Soviet states and slowly surround Russia and isolate her further. I really think that long term Russia will become less and less of a threat as long as we just let her tire herself out by doing things like this.
like Napoleon said ( I think it was him) - when your enemy is making a mistake, do not get in his way.
After Obama let his little dictator of Palestine and MIT grad, Benjamin Mileikowsky, make that goofy "red line in the sand" speech in a New Jersy accent at the UN a few years back, I knew that was it. Putin has crossed the "red line" at least five times since, each time with his shirt off, wearing see through speedos.
Doclove wrote:
Ya Ya Ya wrote:M
Last time I checked, the Ukraine was not part of the US, so we should not get involved.
Last time I check Russia had a decent army. USA only fight countries with virtually no army and definitely no WMD so they will not get involved as that would take real balls
So, you are suggesting that it is a good idea to get into wars with nuclear powers? Yeah dude, that would really show them who had balls!
F'ing moron.
Randy Oldman wrote:
Reagan was not President when The Soviet Union collapsed.
Reagan provided Iran and Iraq with arms and ignored the genocide committed against Kurdish civilians.
Reagan provided the the Taliban with training and weapons.
Reagan ordered the botched invasion of Grenada.
Reagan failed to prevent The Falklands War.
Reagan recognized and supported the white South African government.
Reagan supported UNITA in Angola. They lost.
Reagan tried to depose Gaddafi, by ordering targeted air strikes as revenge for the Berlin bombing, which killed 62 US soldiers.
Reagan was credited with ending the Cold War.
The CIA support for the armed opposition in Nicaragua were a success, bit the US made no attempt to stop the scorched earth policy by the Nicaraguan rebels and the genocide of Mayan peoples in El Salvador..
You forgot about the Beirut bombing in 1983, which killed 241 US soldiers...on Reagan's watch. What did he do about it? Did this attack make the US look weak?!
I would check my special "What would Francis Underwood do?" magic 8 ball.
Recognizer of Lame Posts wrote:
photofinish wrote:Putin went for it knowing that Obama is weak. The end result will be war with little to no US involvement.
So, you simply repeat your mantra without addressing the OP's question in any way. Talk about weak!
That's how we do.