Watching Fox News cover this is pretty laughable. I am Republican but I haven't watched Fox news since shortly after Obama took office, since it's endless drivel about how terrible he is (which I do agree he hasn't done a great job, I just refuse to hear about it 24 hours a day). If this was Bush, they would be praising him for being "strong". But now that it's a Democrat, the move is senseless. Iraq. WMD. No proof in the end. Sound familiar?
I like Putin. No BS, you know where he stands, and I like the chronically pissed off/bored look. Just so you know, and I do, if stuff happens in Eastern Med, it will be Russian strike aircraft, en masse, coming out of SE Russia at high speed, across Turkey and whatever, and launching hundreds of cruise missiles. The navy vs navy engagement will end quickly and will be but a sideshow. But it is not gonna happen, so not to worry.
But do you trust him? I didn't think so. That has always been their plan, but it is fraught with problems and could only work if nobody else resisted. The US, NATO, and Israel have a formidable capability to ruin their day.
About as much as any of politician. I think he is smart enough to know the big one ends it for all of us. That is about all i really care about. Some of those guys, IMHO, did not quite understand that.
Ah. So you think he is a realist. Perhaps so. But he's also a serious nationalist with a history of ruthless behavior. The guy is a career spook. He's a sneaky bastard who has risen to the top in a sea of sneaky bastards. This makes him an expert liar, a master of deceit, and a dangerous customer. But if this is balanced with realism, then we can deal with him. Some of his predecessors were as ideological as Hitler and Stalin. The carrot and the stick did not work with those guys, only overt and powerful confrontation.
The original Russians were Vikings, you know. My cousins. Been living with Slavs too long. krasnyye pyat'desyat pyat
