I understand how someone from your perspective can make an argument that the past two Presidents are poor judges of Putin's character, but you have failed to outline exactly how the US is "screwed". I see business as usual for the USA. For Russia I see frozen assets and cold-shouldered diplomacy from their own Allies that will undoubtedly grow stronger should Russia not fall in line with the rest of the world.
Reread my comment my friend...I said W & Obama screwed their handling of Putin not that we are screwed. There is a world of difference. I agree with your point about the relative position of the US and Russia today. However had W & Obama done a better job with Putin, he might not have taken Ukraine and that part of the world may have been more stable today. Speculation I know but reasonable IMO.
I don't think Putin was going to lack back for anyone or any reason. He wants to recreate the Soviet Union and was going to push the envelope until the costs became too high.
So what could they have done differently? There was already written promises between the US, Russia and Ukraine that Russia would not do exactly what they have done. How do you control someone who simply has no regard for (international) diplomacy and a total disregard for what others think? You obviously don't have a teenager. There is nothing reasonable about blaming two adults for not being able to control another adult. It would be like blaming me for your posts. There isn't anything that I can do about what you post no matter how much it makes me want to nuke Russia.
What should have been done differently is that W should have made it cost more for Putin to do what he did in Georga. Hit him with stronger sanctions made more diplomatic moves to hinder Putin. Rather than curry Putin's favor as he did he should have taken a stronger position that what Putin did was not acceptable and there was a price to pay. Likewise Pres Obama should have never tried the reset with Russia. By tht time the tenor of Putin's reign was becoming apparent. Though he wasn't president again Putin was pulling the strings and cracking down on dissent and installing his criminal oligarchy. He should not have obligated the US to Putin in Iran or Syria. Finally his abandoning of the anti missle sites in Poland was not a good signal to our allies. There is adifference between controlling what he does and making it easy/enabling him. Just like your teenager if you try to control him after he is on apath its hard...however if you give carrot & stick guidence from the start your chances of a good outome rise dramatically. Speaking of articles to read look at this. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-07-07-42-10. Is Putin raising the stakes. I think it would be a bad move on his part. Reds analysis of the relative strngth and weakness of Russia vis a vis the wet is spot on. Lets see if Putin cares or is wise enough to see that he would take thngs a step too far. Your thoughts?
sounds familiar: seems pro-russian mobs began storming government buildings in Kiev today. exactly the precursor they used prior to invading Crimea. i guess we will get to see how seriously Putin is taking the diplomatic moves from the west sooner rather than later.
This is true, but Dub was in no position to make any military threats with two wars going on nor to apply economic pressure with us needing overflight rights in Russia to supply Afghanistan. Like much of diplomacy, there are tradeoffs to be made. Also it must be noted that Georgia is a former Soviet Republic, is not a NATO ally of ours and is on the border with Russia. It's a turf thing. Just like we keep a military base in hostile Cuba. Our turf. Special rules. Putin wasn't President. It made sense to try to work with Medvedev while Putin was out of power. A popular enough Medvedev might have resisted being pressured by Putin. The US is not obligated to Putin in any fashion. Through diplomacy we got the Russians to back us on Iran sanctions and Iran negotiations as well as in removing chemical weapons from Syria. Our NATO allies are not dismayed by the missile sites. All they wanted was US boots on the ground to help dissuade the Russians from invading again. Instead they got F-15 and F-16 fighter groups. They protected nobody from Iranian missiles that still don't exist and 10 silos were never enough to stop an Russian attack. Both Dub and Barry held those missile sites out as bargaining chips and we used them to get the Russian on board with restraining Iranian nuclear ambitions. They would have been expensive, impossible to defend, and useless in a missile assault from Russia. Nothing either President has done has been enabling. This kind of posturing is how lines are drawn diplomatically. Third-world dictators are know to make pompous pronouncements and threats to pump us domestic support. This is exactly what Putin is doing. He already made the quiet call to Obama to say that he would not be invading Ukraine and pulled about 10,000 troops away. Meanwhile he is stoking Russian nationalism at home to distract from the economic hardships Russians are suffering. He has cracked down on independent news in Russia so that they can't see just how good the Wet is doing compared to them. But the carrot and the stick approach is the right one. Our carrot in this case is NOT applying the economic sanctions. We might even tacitly concede Crimea to them since it is no no strategic consequence to us in return for an hands-off-Ukraine agreement. Much depends on whether Putin is fundamentally rational and just pretending to be rash and crazy or if he really is rash and crazy. The Russian people want to know this even more than we do.
Putin is bat shit crazy... who else poses with wildlife photos bare chested acting like the John Wayne of Eastern Europe? Dude has a serious identity crisis, and the rest of his neighboring countries will suffer while he tries to figure it out.
