That's why we must be smart and fight an economic war with them. NATO has $36 trillion GDP versus Russia's 2.8 trillion. It's their weak spot. They know it. We know it.
You are trying to change history again . . . Amigo . . . the Six-Day War in 1967 started with Israeli surprise air strikes on Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. That was followed by an Israeli blitzkrieg in which the Golan Heights were seized from Syria, the West Bank was seized from Jordan while Gaza and Sinai were seized from Egypt. Arab armies were driven before them. It ended with Israel at the Suez Canal which they blocked for years. Israeli territory was never entered by Arabs. In fact, Israel has decades-long peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Syria only wants the Golan back. And no country in the world recognizes these occupations as legitimate, including the US. Not knowing history seems to be endemic.
Actually Red the Arab armies were massing for an attack that with the size of Israel would have cut it in half. With the intelligence giving them warning the Israeli forces did preempt. No one in the west condemned their action at the beginning. It was understood if they hadn't acted Israel would have been destroyed and a slaughter would have ensued. As you just noted the Israelis returned the land with the signing of peace treaty and have been ready to do one with Syria but the Assad dynasty hasn't been open to discussion. The Israelis are ready to negotiate the return of most of the west bank in return for a peace treaty from the Palestinians who refuse every serious offer. The fact they returned the land demonstrates the difference between the Russian seizure of Crimea and the result of the 1967 war. BTW the US and other countries do recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Shading history seems to endemic. You are old enough to know better.
I'm not duped; you're blinded by hero worship. You're right these things play out over years; which is exactly what I'm talking about whey I say that years of Obama foreign policy miscalculations with Russia has brought us to this point. I'm listening to what your saying but most of it makes no sense to me at all. What makes you think Putin gives a shit about Ukraine democratic elections - he doesn't even care about Russian democratic elections. You talk about miscalculations and pro-Russian Ukrainian presidential candidates and Russian population percentages like they matter. They don't. The invasion was swift, organized, and a complete success. Putin shock and awed the West - which is supposed to be led by guess who. Wake up Red, this one's over. We are going to dole out some face saving punishment and Putin is going to use it to build nationalist fervor which will neutralize any pain his people feel. He's like the thief who steals 5 million dollars and has to spend a couple of years in jail; but gets to keep the money when he gets out. He's already planning his next heist. That's the only one we can do anything about, we already screwed the pooch on this one. Strut? I'm not looking for Obama to strut, I'd settle for not looking slow and weak. What possible reason would Obama have to strut? "All right Putin that's the last straw, some of your friends are no longer allowed to fly to New York and make a car loan."
Putin will do what he wants now. Barry and his sanctions do not intimidate him in the least. He has little respect for a NATO that's supposed to be led by the US. Vladimir is waiting on another "redline" to be drawn so he will have his next objective. He will probably increase trade with Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iran, and China. He will use Russian ships and any blockades that are attempted will lead to more international tension.
What do you think we should be doing? Starting another war? You act like Obama has just rolled over and is waiting for Putin to scratch his stomach like an old yard dog. Short of sending troops into the Ukraine to defend it against Russian advancement, what else would satisfy you? We don't have the money or the political will to fight another war. Has Putin figured this into his decision making? Absolutely! Is that Obama's fault? Not hardly. You guys act like Obama always plays soft but I've yet to see that demonstrated in practice. The problem is that after 8 years of cowboy diplomacy where the answer to every problem was military intervention, the act of preventing war with economic sanctions and real diplomacy looks like a pink elephant wearing old lady panties. Our willingness to handle issues like this with diplomacy rather than military might is a sign of our strength, not our weakness. I hate that bastard Putin as much as the next guy and I would love nothing more than for us to bomb them back into the dark ages and for Putin to have to call the White House begging for mercy. That said, such actions are not rational and our victory in this instance will come later down the road when the Russian economy suffers. And make no mistake about it, it will suffer. All of this said, I am tired of listening to right wingers polishing Putin's balls with their mouths because they would rather praise an old communist hard liner than given an iota of support to the President. I never cared much for GWB but he was my President and my angst for him stopped at the borders.
Yes I know, but why mislead by saying that Israel was attacked? In fact Israel was the attacker in 1967. In 1973 Israel was attacked. Just being accurate. The Crimean crisis is a month old! Egypt an Jordan did not get their land back for over a decade of negotiations and only then when a treaty was signed and major concessions granted. People are going to be drawing parallels, Russia most of all. We invaded and occupied Panama to preserve a resource critical to our navy, just as Russia did in the Crimea. Sure there are differences that we justify it with, but the fact remains that great powers have turf that they will defend despite world opinion. We have trumpeted the Monroe Doctrine for 200 years forbidding an European power to take our turf in the Western Hemisphere. Russia will draw parallels to their policy about Ukraine. There may be a fine line between accurate and inaccurate, but it ain't invisible.
Yet you can't name any actual foreign policy blunders or made a case for this at all. You are quite wrong. Putin has a restive Russian population suffering from poor economics an uneasy about his anti-demcoratics actions of recent years. The army did not resist the last two Russian revolutions. Putin cannot count on them. No, he is concerned with image both domestic and foreign. You are easily impressed. Crimea didn't resist! How shocking and awesome an invasion! Look, Russia is a shadow of their former Soviet power. They have nibbled pieces of defenseless countries because its really all that they can do. They only major invasion they have mounted since WWII (Afghanistan) was a complete failure and precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin is posturing and pretending his is still a Superpower and you have bought it hook, line and sinker. I've explained to you at length,why this thing has barely begun, but you just ain't listening.
Stop being a crybaby. Putin's options are very limited and all have significant blowback. He can't do without income from Europe and America. He certainly can't expect to finance a war against them by counting on them to provide the income. He shot his wad to get Crimea but it may have cost him the Ukraine. Amigo . . . Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Iran have no money! They can't possibly replace the EU. The only commodities that they have to trade is oil which makes them in direct competition with Russia for the EU energy business.
I've asked this several times and they evade the answer. It's because this is one issue where the right and the left essentially agree. We are not going to war over Crimea. We will disapprove an create economic headaches to demonstrate to Russia that there are consequences to misbehavior. We will protect NATO. But the right wing is conditioned to blindly blame Obama for everything, even when they have no better solutions and actually agree with what is being done. Like the boy who cried wolf, people are starting to ignore them.
