anatta (03-25-2017)
Not too great.
The way to deal with Putin is somewhere between playing paddy-cake and saber rattling. Erdogan is a bigger threat than Putin. North Korea would very much like to nuke us. The Iranian mullahs are intent on starting WWIII so as to prepare the way for the 12 imam or whatever.
Putin is low on the threat totem pole right now. Putin has been made into a scapegoat because the left is pissy about losing the election. McCain jumped on board for his own ideological reasons.
And none of it, could be more transparent.
Coup has started. First of many steps. Impeachment will follow ultimately~WB attorney Mark Zaid, January 2017
anatta (03-25-2017)
with due respect..you don't see a lot other then what you want to.
I'd go after him over the Baltics. not just pre-NATO expansion states.
The best way to do this is to establish understandings, "spheres" - not formal NATO expansion.
You have to take his security needs seriously, not just western Europe's.This was the YUGE failing of Obama's.
Obama was passive. Get active understandings not sole NATO expansion /bellicosity.
Play the Russian card after you do this. That separates out the Sino-Russian alliance
diplomacy is the go to carrot, along with the usual sticks
Darth Omar (03-25-2017)
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
Because the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the old Julian calendar for religious ceremonial and traditional reasons. Although I may have Julien and Gregorian backwards, I sometimes can't keep it straight.
The Catholic church adopted the more modern Gregorian calendar.
sidebar: bonus for me, as a kid I got to have two christmas'
Minister of Truth (03-25-2017)
Unfortunately, having a Polish grandmother and quoting Fyodor Dostoyevsky does not make you an expert international diplomat on Russia. Sidebar: Dostoyevsky was a great philosopher; I think Anton Chekhov had much better insights into the tangible nature and soul of the Russian people. Probably because he came from a serf background, was widely traveled, and saw Russia from both the perspective on the lower classes and the perspective of the gentry.
I am not going to pretend to be an arm chair diplomatic expert.
I have never advocated making Ukraine a part of NATO. I have never said we should ignore Russia's security concerns, real or imagined on their part. I have never said not to talk to Russia.
Russia violated international law in invading Ukraine.
The U.S. and western Europe promised to guarantee Ukraine's sovereign integrity in exchange for Ukraine relinquishing it's nukes. We made a promise.
It's as simple as that. Period. End of story.
lol.. you do remember the Warsaw Pact?
"Rights" in realpolitik are almost meaningless. It's why we don't base our foreign policy on Carters' human rights anymore
You might have a point except for the fact of US meddling in the Euromaiden -what gives us any rights
to determine the future of the Uk people? Especially a state like Uk where 1/2 the country's languge is Russia
and the people identify themselves as such.
That's why they are called "Russian separatists" fighting in the Donbass-they are fighting against Kyiv
you a referring to the Budapest Memorandum?
On paper that is true, but as I just mentioned above it's not that simple when the US actually meddles
with USAID to overthrow Yanukovych.
USAID got Maidan coup up and running
http://www.geopolitica.ru/en/news/us...g#.WNbrd6K1uM8
According to the leaked papers, a network of interlocking NGOs– Chesno (Honestly), Center UA and Stop Censorship, to name a few – were growing in influence in Ukraine by “targeting pro-Yanukovych politicians with a well-coordinated anti-corruption campaign that built its strength in Ukraine’s regions, before massing in Kiev last autumn.”
It was reported earlier that the Maidan unrest in the late 2013 drew large scores of western foreigners in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, including the so-called “mercenaries” from the United States, Germany and Poland.
The heavily fortified Maidan camp in Kiev’s Independence Square was the flashpoint of the anti-Yanukovych uprising. It attracted some of the most prominent, if not exactly controversial, public people from the West. Among them were US Republican Senators John McCain and Ryan Murphy. McCain promised protesters the support of the American nation and quoted the 19th-century Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in his podium speech.“There weren’t many Russians there, compared to some 60 people from the United States, around 30 and up to 50 Germans, as well as Poles, Turks and many others,” one of the participants, who identified himself as Vladimir, confessed.
^McCain and Victoria Nuland meddling around Independence Sq. Kyiv
Last edited by anatta; 03-25-2017 at 04:58 PM.
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
Wait. You actually provided a hyperlink to a Russian media source as supporting evidence? Surely you jest.
Chief, you strike me as someone who read a lot of Russian media sources and rightwing blogs in the last six months, and now consider yourself an expert on Russia, eager to lecture everyone with your new found knowledge.
I reject the premise of your post, especially since you linked to Russian media. Poor form, mate.
You do not know what is best for the people of Ukraine, or Russia. You do not have expert or scholarly knowledge of the topic.
Ultimately, the people of Ukraine need to sort things out for themselves, without undue interference from major powers.
I am not interested in internet poseurs who profess foreign policy and diplomatic expertise on an obscure political message board forum.
My interests are much more limited than your unfocused meanderings and ramblings. My interests are American interests and the interests of international law and order. Russia violated international law. Clearly and unequivocally. The interests of Europe, and the United states are to uphold international law and Ukraninan sovereignty.
If you want to make the case that the U.S. staged a coup in Ukraine and somehow violated international law, you are going to have to do better than an obscure Russian media source. Much, much better.
Seeing as you seemingly like to have the last word, I leave you to your ramblings and Kremilin-esque banter. Cheers!
Last edited by Cypress; 03-25-2017 at 09:08 PM. Reason: typos
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
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