Russia's Uncontested Arrival

[CF DolFan]

I'm really surprised no one has brought this up but this should get it going. I love Huckabee. I think he does a great of job of dealing with people from both parties. His blog today nailed it. We are kind of screwed in a several ways right now and will have to do something drastic to earn our place in the world. We have been reduced to being too peace loving hippyish to do anything and it will continue to have more of a negative impact to the world because of it.

Mar 05 2014

Russia's Uncontested Arrival

Mike Huckabee

As Russia sent troops into Crimea over the weekend, President Obama warned Russian President Putin that there will be costs. But if Putin shivered, it was probably just because he was going shirtless… Vladimir Putin is making it clear that Obama’s threats won’t deter him at all from cracking down in Ukraine. And why should they? This is an administration that issues warnings but never does anything about them. The red line in Syria, we’re gonna get control of Benghazi, we will not tolerate Iran building nukes. It all means nothing. And Putin knows it. When Obama threatens to “push the button,” it means that silly giant prop button that illustrated how we were going to “reset” our Russian policy to be nicer. You don’t disarm aggressors by smiling at them, especially when you’re toothless. I’m not saying we should intervene militarily, but making empty threats just diminishes our power and standing in the world even further. It’s like the parent who keeps warning, “Don’t make me come up there!,” when the kid knows they’ve never come up there, and they never will.

We’re supposedly the super power, yet Russia is acting like the super power because they know nobody’s going to stop them. Obama already ceded leadership to Putin when he backed down from his “red line” threat in Syria and let Putin swoop in and take control. He did it again when he stood idly by as Egyptians overthrew Mohammed Morsi, convincing Egypt that America was an unreliable ally so they cut an oil deal with Russia.

To be fair, it’s easy to criticize, but harder to suggest what Obama SHOULD do. The problem is that there’s very little he can do, because he’s spent five years creating this situation. It’s one of the great ironies of all time, but one most leaders have understood for millennia: to preserve peace, you must prepare for war. Your potential enemies have to know that you’ll respond to any challenges with an iron fist, not a limp wrist. Instead, all around the world, we’ve abdicated our role as a world leader, made threats we haven’t backed up, allowed chaos to reign without consequence, refused to take sides when citizens risked their lives to stand up to tyrants, and now, we’re issuing vague threats to Russia in the same week that Chuck Hagel is announcing to the whole world that we’re slashing our troops back to pre-World War II levels. It’s no surprise that Putin isn’t intimated by Obama’s threats. The only surprise is why he still bothers to pretend to listen when his agenda is so packed with planning the next invasion.

By the way, from the same administration that gave us such creative new euphemisms as “man-caused disaster” for “terrorist attack” and “kinetic military action” for “war,” comes this great new one. Russian troops aren’t “invading” Ukraine. They’re staging an “uncontested arrival.” It’s sad that comedian George Carlin has died, but at least someone at the State Department is carrying on his life’s work.


http://www.mikehuckabee.com/2014/3/russia-s-uncontested-arrival

[Sunstroke]

Holy shit, a Republican whose life's ambition is to become president is criticizing Obama. Color me shocked...

[Fau Teixeira]

Let me ask a few questions just to clarify your position.

1 - What is your stance on the role of america in the world ?
2 - What SHOULD we be doing internationally?

[Phishfan]

"I'm not saying we should intervene militarily" followed by military strength retoric. It isn't hard to see through the thinly veiled disguise of what he is suggesting.

[CF DolFan]

Holy shit, a Republican whose life's ambition is to become president is criticizing Obama. Color me shocked...

Duh ... thank you for that enlightenment but I kind of thought that was a given. Maybe I should write that out next time just to be clear for those of you who might feel duped.  

It doesn't change what's going on. What did he say that was false? We have turned into a country that threatens and does nothing about it. We are weak in the eyes of the world and that means people do not respect us and will do what they want without fear of repercussion.

[CF DolFan]

"I'm not saying we should intervene militarily" followed by military strength retoric. It isn't hard to see through the thinly veiled disguise of what he is suggesting.

Here's a thought. Don't make silly threats your chicken little ass can't cover. Is that too much to ask. Next we can work on the military aspect.

Countries, including North Korea have made us look weak. It will only get worse.

I'm really disappointed in you guys. I though he was pretty clear. You act as if you broke code or something. Maybe I gave you too much credit.

[Spider-Dan]

That's funny, because I thought Putin went into Ukraine based on the Bush Doctrine.  You know, the doctrine that says you can invade whatever country you want for no reason at all.

But maybe Huckabee is right and it has more to do with how many troops the U.S. had protecting its embassy in Libya, or which words Obama used in his speeches.  Maybe that carries more weight with Putin than the actual precedent of military invasion that GWB set.

[Phishfan]

Countries, including North Korea have made us look weak. It will only get worse.

How has North Korea made us look weak?

[CF DolFan]

How has North Korea made us look weak?

Launching long range missile and nuclear blasts the US and UN were threatening them not to do. This doesn't even count all of the threats directly towards the US.

[Phishfan]

If you are referring to the missiles they launched this week. Anyone who feels that makes us look weak as a military or nation has some sort of complex they need to get corrected. As for nuclear testing, they haven't done that in a year but threatened more were coming. Not sure how their lack of doing it anymore is our weakness.

[pondwater]

I'm really disappointed in you guys. I though he was pretty clear. You act as if you broke code or something. Maybe I gave you too much credit.

CF, do you expect a bunch of liberals to admit that their hero is weak and unqualified for the position that he begged for? But when in doubt about Obama's weakness and failures, blame Bush. I mean it was ONLY like 5 years ago when he was president, so obviously it's all his fault.

Let's ignore the fact that all the top congressional Democrats voted to invade Iraq. Let's also ignore the fact that top congressional democrats had access to the same intelligence sources as Bush did - US Intelligence, British Intelligence, Israeli Intelligence, U.N. Intelligence. So ignoring those facts, even if it was a mistake for both republicans and democrats voting to invade Iraq. Aren't we supposed to learn from our mistakes? Or is the status quo OK as long as you can say that the prior administration "did it", even though we agreed with him.

So tell me again, what does Bush have to do with our "community organizer in chief" being weak, unqualified, and ineffective at the job he begged for?

[Fau Teixeira]

I don't think we should intervene militarily in other countries. We should bring our troops home from overseas, station them at every port and airport and on our borders and we should get out of the business of policing the world.

If russia invades the Ukraine  .. that's too bad for the ukranians .. it's a raw deal for them. Maybe they should invest more in their military like we do and secure their borders. Or join with someone that does.

It's too bad .. but my tax dollars can't be expected to fix ukranian independence, nor should they.

[Sunstroke]

Duh ... thank you for that enlightenment but I kind of thought that was a given. Maybe I should write that out next time just to be clear for those of you who might feel duped.  

Of course it was a given, as is your predictable posting of ridiculous GOP tripe. My response was sarcasm. I'd advise you to look it up, but I heard that the Tea Party had the term removed from their dictionary.

[Spider-Dan]

Of course, the reflexive conservative response towards any mentioned of George W. Bush is "there go the liberals blaming Bush again!  get over it already!"

But just like the decision to abandon the search for Bin Laden and the decision to decimate the Clinton surplus, the decision to embark on a war of choice in Iraq with no substantial justification sits firmly at the foot of the Bush Administration.  No matter how many you want to hope people forget about it, it's still an historical fact.

So if we want to talk about where the blame lies, the precedent set when the United States (with a Republican president and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress) chose to invade Iraq with no cause is the smoking gun.  The shrieks of "Benghazi!" and "Fast and Furious!" and "IRS!" from the right are nothing but more smokescreens designed to shift the blame.

The most hilarious excuse of them all is the claim that Obama's decision to allow the Egyptian people to work out their own problems is the culprit.  Talk about a backward interpretation of democracy...

[pondwater]

I don't think we should intervene militarily in other countries. We should bring our troops home from overseas, station them at every port and airport and on our borders and we should get out of the business of policing the world.

If russia invades the Ukraine  .. that's too bad for the ukranians .. it's a raw deal for them. Maybe they should invest more in their military like we do and secure their borders. Or join with someone that does.

It's too bad .. but my tax dollars can't be expected to fix ukranian independence, nor should they.

I tend to agree with you on the first part. We can't police the world successfully for much longer before it becomes our downfall.

As for the many countries and citizens of those countries that can't protect themselves from invasion. Maybe they should think about securing the right to arm themselves so that they can protect themselves. Even without the US armed forces, the United States would fare pretty well against a conventional ground invasion. Better than any other country on earth.