Author Topic: Vladimir Putin can do anything he likes in Syria – the West doesn't care enough to stop him  (Read 1722 times)

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HAPPY2BME

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Charles Crawford
20 October 2016

All is proceeding accordingly. Moscow has flipped President Obama’s oft-repeated "Assad must go!" into "actually, Assad will still be around after Obama goes." Massed Russian warships sail southwards towards Syria for an attempted final blasting of anti-Assad elements and victory (of sorts) for Assad ..

The grim problem in all this for Western diplomats is that Syria’s President Assad has one of the key precepts of international law firmly on his side, namely Article 51 of the UN Charter:

    Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations…

The point is not that this Russian military effort is all-powerful or doomed to succeed. Rather it is that the Kremlin is working on the assumption that Washington under current management just does not care enough about Syria (or indeed anything else that much) to make anything like an equivalent commitment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/20/vladimir-putin-can-do-anything-he-likes-in-syria--the-west-doesnt-care/



HAPPY2BME

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Offline dfwgator

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Because Assad beats the alternative.

HAPPY2BME

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Jill Stein Would Choose Donald Trump Over Crooked Hillary Clinton

Green Party Presidential candidate, Jill Stein says that she would support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
Stein told a CNBC call-in show last week that Clinton is much more likely to ignite a war with Russia that could turn into a nuclear exchange. However, Trump proposes to have a legitimate reset and normalization in relations between the U.S. and Russia.

Stein makes some really good – and surprising – points in this 2-minute clip.
First she points out something that was news to me – that Obama has actually exploded air pollution during his two terms.

However, Stein then wanders into an area where she does not know the facts – the capabilities of our nuclear ICBM strike force.

Wrong! Our ballistic missiles are NOT on a hair-trigger alert. In fact, the entire system is designed from the ground up to NOT to have what’s called “launch-on-warning” capability, despite what some have said in the media.

Launch-on-warning means that as soon as the North American Air Defense Command spots a ballistic missile attack, they would have approximately 15 minutes to launch a nuclear counterstrike before the first incoming missiles – no-doubt aimed at our ICBMs – would strike the first blow.

Our ballistic nuclear capability is designed to be able to withstand a nuclear first-strike, and still have enough survive to be able to deliver a fatal retaliatory blow to any aggressor. US nuclear-tipped missiles are not easy to launch. The system is designed that way to prevent the worst-case scenario of some idiot president accidentally triggering an all-out nuclear war.

And the President does not carry around the so-called nuclear codes in his pocket. The President always has a military officer nearby carrying the so-called “football”.

It’s called the football because the president’s role is just one link in a command chain. He or she cannot give a launch command by him or herself.

So, they are not on a hair trigger, and saying so promotes an unnecessary fear in the populace that we are just inches from doomsday at any given time.

This may serve your political purposes, but it is not correct and you should stop using it.

This is wrong also, despite what Mikhail Gorbachev may have said. You were only 12 when the Cuban Missile Crisis hit, and so perhaps you were sheltered from the pivotal danger which culminated on Oct. 22, 1962, when President Kennedy addressed the nation on television.

Thereafter, a significant fraction of the U.S. population became so fearful of nuclear war that they dug fallout shelters in their back yards.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwdPrbrbFLI


Offline LateForLunch

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Because Assad beats the alternative.
Yes. Just. This.

Putin's greatest flaw is also his greatest strength. He does not give a fig about morality when it comes to affairs of state- in that sense he is a pure disciple of Machiavelli. He consistently does whatever he considers to be in the best interests of his regime, power-constituency and strongest allies.

While the Obama administration has made its only firm foreign policy to have no firm foreign policy, Putin has given lip service to Classical Liberalism without actually following through with reinforcing it much directly. He has ruled post-Communist Russia more like a Tsar than a freely-elected administrator of a constitutional republic.

He has managed to reign in/prevent international terrorism inside the Russian Federation and to strengthen Russian interests in many ways (if not doing much to actually improve the general economy for most of the working class). That has made him mildly popular with the electorate but more popular with the plutocracy and the institutionally-corrupt Statist bureaucracy which supports them.

The cruel reality of geopolitics is that those who rule deserve to rule, and those who sideline themselves due to failure to seize the moment as windows of opportunity open and close over time, are relegated to being mostly bystanders in world events.

The Eightball Obama is a boy among men when it comes to international politics. Obama lacks the intellect, sophistication and worst of all lacks the seriousness of mind or desire to compete with the Big Players on the Global Stage.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2016, 03:31:49 pm by LateForLunch »
GOTWALMA Get out of the way and leave me alone! (Nods to General Teebone)

Online kevindavis007

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Yes. Just. This.

Putin's greatest flaw is also his greatest strength. He does not give a fig about morality when it comes to affairs of state- in that sense he is a pure disciple of Machiavelli. He consistently does whatever he considers to be in the best interests of his regime, power-constituency and strongest allies.

While the Obama administration has made its only firm foreign policy to have no firm foreign policy, Putin has given lip service to Classical Liberalism without actually following through with reinforcing it much directly. He has ruled post-Communist Russia more like a Tsar than a freely-elected administrator of a constitutional republic.

He has managed to reign in/prevent international terrorism inside the Russian Federation and to strengthen Russian interests in many ways (if not doing much to actually improve the general economy for most of the working class). That has made him mildly popular with the electorate but more popular with the plutocracy and the institutionally-corrupt Statist bureaucracy which supports them.

The cruel reality of geopolitics is that those who rule deserve to rule, and those who sideline themselves due to failure to seize the moment as windows of opportunity open and close over time, are relegated to being mostly bystanders in world events.

The Eightball Obama is a boy among men when it comes to international politics. Obama lacks the intellect, sophistication and worst of all lacks the seriousness of mind or desire to compete with the Big Players on the Global Stage.


Russia is full of vodka drinking losers..
Join The Reagan Caucus: https://reagancaucus.org/

Offline r9etb

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The Eightball Obama is a boy among men when it comes to international politics. Obama lacks the intellect, sophistication and worst of all lacks the seriousness of mind or desire to compete with the Big Players on the Global Stage.

An excellent post throughout.  I'm isolating the last sentence, because in addition to pinpointing Obama's chief failing -- he still thinks that for him to say something, it will turn out as he says -- it also is the failing of Democrats in general.

Hillary Clinton also lacks the necessary seriousness, as her failures in Libya point out.  John Kerry likewise lacks seriousness, in basically everything he says and does.  The Obama foreign policy brain trust, such as it is, serves mainly to project Obama's sophomoric world-view onto the world stage.

Democrat geopolitics has long been focused on initial impressions, with no thought to what comes after.  "The leadership of Country X does bad things.  Therefore, the leadership of Country X must be taken down."  No thought to what comes next.  The chaos in the Middle East is a direct consequence of that approach.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2016, 04:17:49 pm by r9etb »

Offline r9etb

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Russia is full of vodka drinking losers..

If so, what does it say about us that they're kicking our asses pretty much every time we try to compete with them?

Offline dfwgator

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Russia is full of vodka drinking losers..

Those 'vodka drinking losers' kicked serious Nazi butt.

Online kevindavis007

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Those 'vodka drinking losers' kicked serious Nazi butt.


WITH OUR HELP.  I can't believe 'conservatives' like Putin and Russia...
Join The Reagan Caucus: https://reagancaucus.org/

Offline r9etb

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WITH OUR HELP.  I can't believe 'conservatives' like Putin and Russia...

It's not a matter of "liking."  It's an attempt to assess what motivates Putin, and what has made him successful in geopolitics over the last several years.

Obviously, whatever American foreign policy may be, it has been utterly ineffective in those areas where the Russians are also involved.  Part of that is due to an inability to deal effectively with Putin and Russia.  The only way to fix that, is to understand them.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2016, 04:38:40 pm by r9etb »

Offline LateForLunch

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Russia is full of vodka drinking losers..

True, but it also has a 1.13 trillion dollar legitimate GDP, the sixth highest purchasing-expenditure level in the world, the second-largest military in the world, one of the lowest external debt levels of any major economic power. So maybe you'd better smile when you say that in the presence of any Russian national who speaks English unless you want to offend them - most of them are also gun owners and avid hunters.

The infamous "Russian incompetence" of the Soviet Era has largely given way to a 21st century urbanity and worldliness which makes them a formidable opponent in all first-tier national arenas - especially since the Russians have strong alliances with numerous nations whose relations with the U.S. have not been good, either historically or since the Eightball and his minions have been blundering around Washington like the Three Stooges.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia
« Last Edit: October 20, 2016, 05:09:47 pm by LateForLunch »
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Offline Longmire

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Offline ABX

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More dominoes bump.

geronl

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Those 'vodka drinking losers' kicked serious Nazi butt.

With the supplies we sent

Offline Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Why is Happy2bme username deleted? Just wondering.

Offline LateForLunch

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Why is Happy2bme username deleted? Just wondering.

That's an easy one - NOBODY is happy anymore. It's become fashionable to be UNhappy all of the time (unless nobody is watching, of course). So any screen name with the word "happy" would be excluded from the list. Is that about right, Admin !?!  (waiting for my cookie to be tossed)

« Last Edit: April 07, 2017, 07:14:44 pm by LateForLunch »
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Offline ABX

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Why is Happy2bme username deleted? Just wondering.

That particular account of his went bye bye. I'm sure others are still around and responding though. I need to check later.