In response, the Russians sign a treaty making Crimea a part of Russia.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/18/russia-moves-to-annex-crimea-laughs-at-us-sanctions/
Well, there are consequences for that too: Joe Biden has traveled to Europe to assure the Poles, Lithuanians, and Lichtensteiners that the "US has their back".
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/03/18/Biden-in-Europe-to-assure-allies-of-US-commitment-on-Ukraine/UPI-62671395154352/
Don't forget to stop off in the Sudentenland, Joe.
And what commitment is he talking about? A commitment to declare that the annexation of Crimea is "unacceptable"?
Of course, nobody is suggesting that the US should send the Marines into the Criema to take it back. But this is the result of a weak and feckless foreign policy vis-a-vis your adversaries. This is another classic example (as if we needed one) to show why weakness increases the danger of war. Putin knew he could get away with it simply by looking at the European and American leadership. He knew it when Obama told Medvedev that he (Obama) would have more flexibility after the 2012 elections. He knew it when Obama canceled the deployment of missile defenses in Poland and Czechoslovakia. He knew it when the administration announced it was cutting the military to pre-WW II levels. He knew it the first time he laid eyes on EU Foreign Affairs head, the Baroness Lady Catherine Ashton. He knew it when he saw how the US and Europe buckled to the Iranians on those nuclear programs. He knew it watching how Obama "had Israel's back". Putin has drawn the appropriate conclusions. The West is weak.
If you want peace and a Russia that respects its neighbors' territory, you need to keep a strong military and take the appropriate measures to counter your adversaries.
Now we have to go back to the Cold War.
Send the marines!
ReplyDelete(No point in having a strong military if you're not prepared to use it).
Oh, but in WW II we had all the heavy industry to outproduce Germany, Japan and Russia combined. Where is it all now?
Obama makes Carter look like Churchill! As one commentator stated: Putin is playing chess and Obama is playing marbles. Worse yet, Obama places economic restrictions on a half-dozen Russians, when they have pulled their assets (billions) out of Western banks and financial organizations two weeks earlier. Good chess moves anticipating what Obama would do after the Russian take-over.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, Putin knew that the EU would not move on truly restrictive action because they get their fuel from Russia. If Obama could see further than his Community Organizer nose, he would have made American energy stronger with coal, oil and gas. Then, if Russia pulled the energy, they could get it from the Middle East as we move to use our own energy resources. Chess verses marble.
As Jefferson stated: "The Nation that wants to be ignorant and free, has never been and will never be."
Squid
The unions, primarily, made it move overseas.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, elwood, every union contract demanded that jobs be moved overseas so that union members could relax at home with their families and collect unemployment.
ReplyDelete(What planet does this Elmer Fudd character live on, anyway?)
If we had re-education camps, which we don't, and I don't support them, because sooner or later someone would be in position to put me in one too, but if we had one, I'd sentence Elmer, I mean elwood, to watch "Roger and Me" 24 hours a day for a year, with meal and bathroom breaks of course.
Because corporations that have NO loyalty whatsoever to the USA (remember Ford Motor Co.'s ties to I.G Farben during WW II, and demanding reparations from the U.S. taxpayers for the bombing of Ford-owned plants turning out Messerschmitts?), began producing everywhere BUT the USA, in a really global war our military supply chain would depend upon all kinds of foreign sources. There were countries who had that problem in WW II... Germany, Japan, Italy... to some extent the Soviet Union as well... Stalin toasted "American production" for making it possible to defeat Germany. Couldn't make that kind of difference now. Chinese production, possibly, but not American.
By the way, Jonah Goldberg says its foolish to say this is the Cold War all over again, and he makes a very intelligent case too.
ReplyDeleteWithout reading what Goldberg said, I consider him a very intelligent guy. Much better than his Mom.
ReplyDeleteYet, it looks to me like Putin is starting a Cold War again.
You should read what the very intelligent guy had to say. It appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I'm sure you can find it somewhere in Orange County.
ReplyDelete