Russian forces tighten grip on Crimea despite U.S. warning

Not entirely isolationist, but installing theocratic religious dictatorships whereever he can and weakening our moral position abroad. Had Obama shown the slightest bit of patience with Syria, we'd be able to pressure Russia more effectively today.

 

Jesus Christ. Obama is doing what every American President has been doing since the end of WW2.

 

More like the CIA, but yeah I won't deny prior involvement. But at least then, there was a legitimate national security interest. The only interest to the Arab Spring is as followed:

"When the winds of trouble blow, I'll stand with the Muslims." NO, you pathetic POS you're supposed to stand with the United States of America!

 

Well technically it was George Dubya who first encouraged change in the middle east.

And Romney was also supportive of the populist uprisings.

Any US president would have encouraged it..

 

Uh, no. You're looking at one such person who would've backed away myself. I would not support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, or those head-cutting, butchering bastards in Syria. There would be no "friends". I would've supported the Syrian Regime in the fight against terrorism.

They are ENEMIES of the U.S. The same type of groups that attacked us on 9/11. There can be no reconciliation, especially of that type.

 

You would do as you are told. Your allies in Qatar, Turkey & Saudi Arabia would dictate your position.

 

ROFL. The same Saudi Arabia that said it would fund Egypt if we told the Egyptian military to (*)(*)(*)(*) off? I'd gladly stick Saudi Arabia into the Vietnam of the Middle East. It's one less obligation.

Turkey has constantly violated INTL. Treaties, and clearing the way for them only had the benefit of being a proxy state against the newly formed AXIS of Russia-China-Iran. I'd rather prop Japan back up than be beholden to the Turkish State.

Qatar? Lol. Yes, we're beholden to Qatar lol. No. Whereas Turkey might have some economic consideration and military power to exist as an independent State, Qatar doesn't have the same privilege. Anything we do for Qatar is doubly in our interest, not the other way around.

In the end, none of those nations have the pull for us to continue this utter farce, and I myself wouldn't continue it.

 

Well there goes your Petro Dollar.

You've just relegated your country to barely first world status.

Now you gotta deal with food, gas and oil shortages. Riots. And even uprisings.

China is backed by Saudi Arabia and now enjoy the dollar you previously had.

Great job mr president!

 

The USA hasn't got the power to do that. They didn't even do it to the USSR. BRICS can abandon the USD overnight, and suddenly USA's QE/O%/Borrowing based economy falls sooner rather than later.

USSR did themselves in. The USA helped kinda like when you have a bidding war at an auction and you run the guy's price up.. It's their own fault. In this case, the USSR wasted too much on arms and especially their Afghanistan invasion that they couldn't sustain their own selves. Almost exactly like USA are doing right now.

 

Many a people may lay claim to Crimea. Before Russia it were Tartars, Genuans and Greeks. Then Krushchev, a Ukrainian, handed over Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet, which in core Russia earned him some resentment. Presently, Putin's position seems to be, he intends to retain control over Crimea until the political situation in Ukraine diffuses and completely stabilizes. If it won't it may be a repeat of another Ossetia.

 

There would of course be economic reform, a return to the Greenback would be in order. The petro dollar is of course weak, we ourselves should dump it. If by dumping it, we can dump the absurdity of these inferior nations even thinking it dictates U.S Action. We ourselves control our destiny, not Saudi Arabia, not Turkey and not Qatar.

These factors already exist even with the petro dollar. Only they don't just affect the U.S, but worldwide. Europe in particular has had huge oil prices in the last decade. In other words, there'd be no such factor or even deterioration from breaking free from those 2nd-3rd world nations.

There's been rumblings that Saudi Arabia's connected with several of the 9/11 Hijackers. If this is true and verifiable, then Saudi's already an enemy state. Our contingency with China has existed as long as WWI. While I wish that nation would engage the world community properly, time and time again it has shown not even the slightest bit of rational behavior in the 21st century. I'm more than prepared to protect the country economically if it means sabotaging the very thin rail Chinese economy where hundreds of thousands of Chinese are impoverished.

These 2nd-3rd world nations, even competing first world nations will NEVER dictate American Policy. Is that understood?

 

Massive reductions in military capability leave the State Department with no option but isolationism.

1931 redux.

 

Amplifying...

1931
Japan conquers Manchuria
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1936
Germany occupies the Rhineland.
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1937
Imperial Japan attacks China
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1938
Germany occupies Austria
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1938
Germany slices the Sudetenland of of Czechoslovakia
Other European nations acquiesce
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1939
Germany occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia
Other European nations acquiesce
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1940
Stalin's USSR occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

1940
Imperial Japan occupies Indochina
The US, mired in Depression and with weak military forces does nothing

By the end of 1941 America figures out where that road leads.

Seventy-three years later America is mired in the Hussein Obama Depression.
Hussein Obama unilaterally degrades US military capacity

Putin de facto occupies the Crimean peninsula. The Lower Donets Basin and Odessa look ripe for the taking.
It seems likely that Ukraine will be reduced to a helpless agrarian satrapy of Russia.

People this ain't no rhyme.
History is repeating itself, driven by the same dynamic.

 

There's been a lot of talk about military intervention in the event Crimea becomes a member of the Russian Federation.

Although it's been a few years, I spent some time analyzing Warsaw Pact military against western military forces. The Soviet equipment back then was technically inferior to western counterparts. However, the biggest inferiority was in the political oversight at the lowest level and the philosophy that every decision at all levels had to be sent to higher headquarters for approval/disapproval. The only ones with final authority were the Marshalls.

The west, on the other hand, allowed platoon leaders to make decisions without needing approval from higher headquarters. That allowed us to use equipment far technically better than those of the "enemy".

The sad part is that we, the US, has fallen into the old Soviet trap of establishing politically inspired Rules of Engagement that almost eliminate individual decision making and leave us vulnerable to lesser equipped military or terrorist cells. It almost completely negates our technological superiority.

China still has the old Soviet ideology of military command.

But, what is happening in Russia? If anything, some of the equipment is improving but the basic philosophy of keeping equipment "user friendly" remains. The AK-47 is still the main individual weapon, is easy to maintain, and almost indestructible. However, have they changed their ideology? It appears so and that makes them a formidable military force. Some of the old client states such as the Ukraine still abide by central planning and makes them subject to Russian superiority.

The Ukraine is a good example of the changes in Russian military command. The actual Russian forces, there by treaty, have not participated in any of the local uprisings. Those are all being conducted by individual bands following an as yet unknown central command. They are being far smarter than the Ukrainians and I foresee Putin winning Crimea into the Russian Federation without a single gunshot.

That will also send a signal to other client states as what to expect.

 

On the point of French Indochina Roosevelt did slap embargo on Japan after it invaded that part of the world, which led Japan to make a decision the time was ripe to take over the oil-rich British Asian possessions, which they feared may have provoked a stronger American response, so they struck pre-emptively against Pearl Harbour.

 

Oh, and it would seem that Putin took offence to John McCain's words that he longs for the Soviet Union. True, he wanted a Euroasian zone of economic cooperation similar to E.U. consisting mostly of the former Soviet Republics, but this he wanted to come about playing by democratic and geopolitical rules rather than via military conquest. Where these rules are broken in what he considers his sphere of influence, he will bend those rules too with amplitude.