Cork U
on 03/06/2014 at 01:37 PM
How fucking Sad is it that we are actually cheering Putin over our own pResident.
It is a clever ploy though.
Hey, I’d love for America to “win” this one. But it won’t. It can’t. Ever. Nothing for us there to win.
Russia has Europe utterly over a barrel because it supplies nearly all their natural gas. Oh, Israel has loads now too, but the EU anti-Semites are always so busy boycotting Israel ... well, you know. Plus they have no real military, and they have no real unity. So expect EU to look the other way just as hard as they can.
Plus the EU wouldn’t let Ukraine in. Plus half the country is Russians anyway, and after a couple decades of post-Cold War being on the dirty end of the stick in Ukraine, they’ve had enough.
So there isn’t really much Obama can do. But he’d sure make us look better if he’d get up and preach hard about freedom, democracy, social change ... except so much of that is foreign to him, being a super big government statist, Marxist/Socialist himself. Even if John Fuckface Kerry could have sounded the alarm, or got up at the UN and said ... but no. These guys didn’t see it coming. Granted, it went from protests to revolution to invasion to capitulation faster than the Germans can conquer France. So we look kinda stupid here. And “redline” Obama is just an empty bag of wind.
I think 80% of this situation is a “gimmee” for old Vlad. Ukraine was about to shatter anyway. He’s just greasing the ways to make sure it all falls how he wants it. Will he get the whole pie? No, but he’ll get 1/3 of it, and that’s a massive win for him. Especially if he plays smart and pumps up the new acquisition to make it economically viable and good looking to other former satellite countries that might be a tad wobbly right now. Pumps up ... like the $15 Billion aid package he just agreed to give Ukraine. Smart! My bet is that all that goes on hold until after, then gets spent in the newly Russian territory. Build 20 factories and make jobs for 100,000 folks, even if they’re only making shoelaces and rubber fish lips to sell inside Russia. Close 20 factories in Siberia; the world will never know. And they only have to stay in business 3-5 years. Putinomics! Our Hero! Shovel ready jobs, building shovels at Crimean People’s Factory #36!!
Back in the Cold War days, the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, editorialists would often point out that the favorite Russian game was chess, while ours was poker. Essentially, they were talking about the difference between long term strategic planning and short term problem solving. The Soviet Union didn’t lose the Cold War because of their geopolitical strategies, they lost because they were tied to an unworkable economic system.
It’s a lesson few have paid much attention to.
I sometimes have trouble deciding what Obama’s real program is, unless it’s purely to create as much damage as possible to United States and Western European interests.
That is, he really does engage in long term strategic planning by undermining our best interests and allowing free reign to our enemies. Look at the entire history of the Arab Spring, all across the North end of Africa. It takes real talent to make that many wrong decisions.
Or, is he just another short sighted community organizer who specializes in stirring up local issues to make himself look good with his constituents?
