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Ukraine has 2 fatal problems:
1) It is much smaller than it's opponent, Russia.
2) It is "blessed" with ethnic diversity which causes division and therefore weakness.

Another example that exposes the lie that is diversity.

I honestly don't think the Obama administration cares one bit about what happens to Ukraine. They're only going through the motions because the EU (and rightfully so) is concerned.

This isn't about the Crimea or political instability in the Ukraine, those issues are symptoms, not the cause.

Russia has been setting the table for years for this to occur, just as with Georgia a few years back.

Next we'll find that Russian speaking minorities in Estonia and Belarus are in need of mother Russia's "assistance".

It's not being "gutless" if you understand what's going on,..as those in Ukraine do.

As mentioned,..

This is a bunch of crap stirred up by the U.S. government crazies.

People in Ukraine know this.

In fact, the whole world outside of America knows.

Russian troops have been in Crimea for decades. They have a contract with Ukraine to use the Black Sea ports there.

The American media is telling you crap,..as they always do.

good read:

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/16/washington-set-world-path-war-paul-craig-roberts/

I deal with Russians and Ukrainians every day. My take on it is no one wants to get killed over it.
Either government are fantastically currupt to an extent we have difficulty believing - both the Ukrainian one and Putin's Russian one.
None of them will want to get killed over being ruled by either. Plus the Ukrainian mentality will be that your always going to lose against the Russians; mix that with a 50% Russian civilian mix, and it will be hard to saddle up and consider it worthwhile.

And I really doubt they have put much thought at all to what the US thinks about it all. Much less waiting to be 'rescued' by them. I think you wold end up fighting the Ukrainians as well as the Russians if anyone was dumb enough to consider that...

Bristoe, I think you highly overestimate this Administration's ability/desire to "give a shyt" anywhere outside of it's limited focal points.



Rice - Mr President, the situation in the Crimea is escalating, what should we tell the press?

Obama - Remind me again why I care about Eastern European white people's troubles?

Rice - We don't, but Chancellor Merkel would like us to care.

Obama - Then send that idiot Kerry over to spout some limp wristed rhetoric.

Rice - We have, but the EU would like us to assist by placing sanctions on Russia?

Obama - Sanctions on Russia? That would upset Vlad, can we just send them a letter that we're very upset with them and we won't host any parties for them for a few months?

Rice - Sure, I already have someone working on the letter.

Obama - Good, now I've got to finish Buffett's Bracket and watch reruns of the Teletubbies, dang it I love that show....

You have to consider that there are a good many people in the world who really don't know what "free" is; they've never really had it. They are led by one ahole after another, with just the sign on the door changing. From that point of view, what good does it do you to "rise up" if you have a 99% chance of just changing the name on the door? To enjoy anything you have to be alive. The people in Ukraine really don't have good options. They will resist an invasion, but they don't have any chance in hell of being successful.

And you also have to think about what "free" means to them. Most people in Ukraine are quite free. Yeah they have a government that pillages the kitty, but that's generally not something the guy on the street sees or knows about. So it's not likely he's going to rise up over issues raised in the New York Times, that he can't see for himself.

The administration is a crew of useful idiots.

It's not in charge of anything.

I am glad the Texans at the Alamo, did not just pack their bags & go home...

True, but one has to understand that the same people that control this administration, are sympathetic to Russia.

The position that the present Ukraine government is a US puppet trying to destabilize the Russian military is interesting. Russian strategy has demanded a warm-water sea outlet forever, and that desire is one of the big reasons Turkey is part of NATO. If the US has deliberately tried to interfere with Russian naval strategy it is no wonder Putin has reacted. Can you imagine US rhetoric if Putin installed a Russian puppet in Panama?

Many historians argue that the Cold War was kept warm by the US wanting to keep industrial profits flowing. If so, this looks like more of the same. What are a few lives compared to the wealth inherent in so many general officer careers and corporate bonuses?

The motivation clearly was industrial profit, getting US companies into Ukraine. Threatening Russian ports was never the intention; nor was much of what happened. The Ukraine government was about to fall and we were propping our guy up, whilst the EU had their guy; we got there first. But our guy pressed for a parliament vote to oust the existing president before the govt fell...that's the part that wasn't actually planned for.

Russia's response is somewhat predictable but heavy handed. I don't think Russia thought we'd really threaten their port; that would be to court much more problems than anyone needed. But Russia saw this as an opportunity to grab some land and secure their port, whilst humbling the US and EU in the process. And it has worked thus far, but it's beginning to backfire. Now Turkey has threatened to close off the Black Sea if Russia doesn't calm down...that is a bit of a game changer. Russia's navy wouldn't be able to do much about that. Navy against land based aircraft has never turned out well for the Navy.

I keep waiting for cooler heads to prevail, but it's not happening. Obama has been beotch-slapped HARD, and he want's to save face and appear strong. Putin is a narcissist who won't accept any kind of loss of face. That's not a good recipe.

My greatest concern is that "O" will feel the need to put some US boots on the ground over there to "show support" for the Ukrainian government and that will be taken as an act of war.

The other thing is, this is a useful diversion from all of the corruption he is bringing to this country.

Ed

Very, very, very few people will ever go to war on principal, and those that choose to go to war very, very rarely ever see battle or face physical harm themselves. You fight when you have something to loose, and/or something to gain.

The mindset of most Ukrainians is that they've really got nothing to loose being under soviet control, and possibly something to gain. The mindset of the new Ukrainian government in fighting the Russians is they have everything to loose and no hope of any gain.

Really little difference between a fat short sighted inner city woman in the US blabbing on about getting an Obama phone and a fat short sighted Ukranian woman chanting Roo-see-uhh.

Ridiculous. The Russians secured a long term lease on Sevastopol when Ukraine became independent. It was extended just a few years ago. They also have port in Novorosisk that can be used, though it is not as large as Sevastopol.

If the Ukraine had attempted to deny Russia use of it's leased port, Russia would have the legal and moral high ground, but that has nothing to do with any of this. Russia is merely using a destabilized Ukraine Government as an excuse to annex a portion of a sovereign nation.

The Ukrainian government has gone back and forth between being Western and Eastern focused since it's independence, the only country that has repeatedly attempted to manipulate and assassinate Ukrainian leaders is Russia.

cccc
have you seen obama act decisively in any area of the world?
he mishandled egypt, syria, libyia, and so, and at the same time this stuff is going on announcing defense cutbacks.
I could add shutting down the missle defense plans for poland.
Putin just outplayed him, but don't worry michelle is going to china and they are planning another vacation. I think most of the world sees us as limp wristed today.
Having said that, stalin relocated all kinds of people, and ethnic russians into the colonies so to speak, and that is a huge problem today in that you have russians living in latvia that don't have much allegiance to lativa.
But i would NEVER underestimate the animosity some of these ethnic native people have towards russians, i can find that in my own family. They were as much worried about stalin and russia during the cold war as they were the west.
Russia walked into the areas of georgia it wanted and our response was what?
The term "paper tiger" comes to mind.
I might mention another comment that was made to me by family that lived under tito. Your first loyalty is to your family, then your village, national government comes last. Why? Generally because of the corrupt nature of the national governments in that part of the world.

Hmmm. I seem to remember something like this happening before. What was the name of that guy? Wore a brown shirt, ugly mustache.

Exactly how does a relatively small population country, with not much military might oppose a neighbor that has millions in a standing army, with some of the most modern weapontry in the world and lot's of it? Ever heard of Czechoslovakia?

The word for it is "Holodomor"
It means "hunger-pestilence, famine"
The famine of 1932�33 was a deliberate act of mass murder, if not genocide committed as part of Joseph Stalin's collectivisation program in the Soviet Union.
Stalin was the man when it came to genocide.
The brown shirt, ugly mustache guy was a rank amateur.
Hitler was a dipchit.
When he invaded the Ukraine those people would have gladly joined him against the USSR and Stalin.
But when you treat people like untermenschen-subhumans.
They tend not to what to fight for you.


dave

Ron Paul: Why does the U.S. care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away?

Rush Limbaugh: Obama Is Filling Out His March Madness Picks While Putin Is 'Reassembling the Soviet Union.'

Ted Cruz: The reality, however, is that Putin is not concerned with international law or historical justice. His sole focus is on correcting what he considers to be the �greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century' by reassembling the Soviet Union.
Ukraine is only a step in this process. That is the real challenge the United States has to face, which we cannot do when we are agonizing over what our respective legal teams think.�

I wonder what the Russian is for Lebensraum?