WTF do you want Obama to do, start a war with Russia? How is that in anyone's interests?
As CaptainCrunch posted above, not even GWB would be that stupid.
Honestly, and this isn't necessarily what I agree with, but you I bet you ($500 ?) that Russia/Putin think Obama is a poosay and won't do jack squat. I doubt they believed that about Bush. Putin is doing this because he knows no one is going to stop him, Bush was probably crazy enough to do it which may have made Putin think twice.
The total loss for the MICEX (Russia's major stock exchange) is $58.4 billion. So with the Olympics that's $110 billion down the drain for Putin's ego. Must be nice to be able to piss all that money away
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Honestly, and this isn't necessarily what I agree with, but you I bet you ($500 ?) that Russia/Putin think Obama is a poosay and won't do jack squat. I doubt they believed that about Bush. Putin is doing this because he knows no one is going to stop him, Bush was probably crazy enough to do it which may have made Putin think twice.
What kind of threat or intimidation do you think could get Putin to hesitate?
I've been thinking about this all morning... I can't come up with a good answer.
I mean... you could sail a carrier battle group into the Black Sea but I think that might be a little too provocative.
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NATO has signed agreements with the Ukraine, in exchange for them giving up their nuclear weapons, that indicate that NATO will assure Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
This could get messy if Russia goes off the deep end.
Not quite... it was the US not specifically NATO that signed the agreement. The agreement was to seek immediate UN security council action. This doesn't do anything since Russia is also on the security council.
Not quite... it was the US not specifically NATO that signed the agreement. The agreement was to seek immediate UN security council action. This doesn't do anything since Russia is also on the security council.
WTF do you want Obama to do, start a war with Russia? How is that in anyone's interests?
As CaptainCrunch posted above, not even GWB would be that stupid.
No, where did I say that? Escalating this any further would be idiotic.
My point is that it was unbelievably naive (and reckless) for the Americans to support this revolution (which looks like a US supported coup in from the Russian perspective) in the first place. The analogy that this would be the same as Russia backing an overthrow of the Mexcian government is apt. Would you expect the US the sit back and do nothing if that were to happen?
It's just a puzzling move by the Americans. You think they would've learned their lesson after being played by Putin on Syria. We now have a situation where the West has no ability to support the Ukrainians they were backing in this revolution, effectively hanging them out to dry. It's an absolute mess that will either result in the Balkanization of the Ukraine or the installation of another Russian puppet government, while the economy will continue to nosedive.
Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
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If the USA and the West don't support Ukraine, any nation that seeks nuclear weapons now will have an unassailable argument that they are needed to properly defend yourself from aggressors, citing this as an example of what diplomatic guarantees are worth. On the other hand, Russia has nuclear weapons right now, and Putin will never back down because he knows he cannot afford to look weak or he will be replaced.
You lose either way, really. Fight the Russians now, or fight countries like Iran and North Korea later. The only real hope is that others in Russia see this as Putin over-reaching himself and try to take him down; moving a carrier group in and preparing for war might help, as long as it is credible and not seen as a bluff. However, the time for unconditional guarantees and making moves was last week, before the Russians seized Crimea.
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Originally Posted by cDnStealth
If Ukraine still had their nukes do you think they'd have used them by now?
I would think it would actually have been worse than the current situation - if the current leadership can't stop their armed forces from defecting to the Russians, it doesn't speak well for their hypothetical control over nuclear weapons, either. Instead of facing a Russian invasion, maybe it'd be a civil war with a nuke or two set off.
However, would Putin be trying to bully and possibly invade a country with different and mutually hostile factions in control of nuclear weapons? I very much doubt it. Which is all that those who argue in favour of nukes to protect their sovereignty will care about.
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John McCain is blaming Obama for the current mess in Ukraine saying Obama's relaxation of the hard line stance towards in Iran/Syria in the Middle East was perceived as weakness by Russian authorities.
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“It’s an outrage,” McCain said. He blasted Obama for failing to take military action against Syria last fall, when the president said he would support airstrikes against the Assad regime for crossing a “red line” over the use of chemical weapons, then deferred to Congress, which opposed military action.
McCain cited remarks Obama made at a summit in South Korea in 2012, in which the president was caught on an open microphone telling Medvedev that he would have more flexibility on policy toward Russia after his reelection that fall.
“Tell Vladimir I’ll be more flexible when I’m reelected?” McCain said in exasperation. Turning to the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, he added that Congress must approve strict new economic sanctions in case the White House’s strategy fails.
