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News/Politics 3-3-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The Bear seems to be waking from hibernation.

From TheWallStJournal  “The American and Russian presidents spoke on the phone for 90 minutes on Saturday after Russia’s parliament voted unanimously to deploy troops in Ukraine, defying warnings from Western leaders not to intervene.

In his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin , U.S. President Barack Obama expressed “his deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Mr. Obama urged Russia to de-escalate tensions by withdrawing its forces back to bases in Crimea and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine.”

Or what?

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2. Chess and marbles.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers Sunday said the naivete of President Obama‘s national security advisers about Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s motivations is allowing Russia to outmaneuver the U.S. in Ukraine and other hot spots around the globe.

“Putin is playing chess and we’re playing marbles,” Rogers, R-Mich., said on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.”

“As you move down the list in Syria and the Ukraine and other areas,” he said, “they’ve been running circles around us.”

Quick! Somebody hit the Reset Button again. 🙄

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3. Mission accomplished.

From TheTelegraph   “Ukraine: Putin’s Crimea aim is to make the West look weak”

“This is tragic for Ukraine, for the near-abroad and for Nato not because it is   taking us by surprise but because we have expected it for so long and seen   it before and yet remain incapable of acting. This is the salami-tactics   that Yes, Prime Minister joked about decades ago. Slice by slice, Russia is   invading Ukraine and weakening the alliance that has kept the peace in   Europe for almost 70 years. 

It is a textbook KGB-led operation: the agent provocateur, followed by a   self-organised militia, then Russian military protection to defend ‘their’    people. The tactic was used to good effect throughout the Soviet period in   Communist coups. It’s what brought down the government of Afghanistan and   caused 30 years of war. And again it is unlikely to be resisted.”

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4. Meanwhile Ukraine officials are calling up reservists.

From TheJerusalemPost   “Ukraine mobilized on Sunday for war and called up its reserves, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to invade in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Ukraine’s security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert, the council’s secretary Andriy Parubiy announced. The Defense Ministry was ordered to conduct the call-up, potentially of all men up to 40 in a country that still has universal male conscription.

Russian forces who have already bloodlessly seized Crimea – an isolated Black Sea peninsula where most of the population are ethnic Russian and Moscow has a naval base – tried to disarm the small Ukrainian contingents there on Sunday. Some Ukrainian commanders refused to give up weapons and bases were surrounded.”

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5. Here’s some good news.

From FoxNews  “Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, will appear before Congress on Wednesday after refusing to testify last year on the matter, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., claimed Sunday — though Lerner’s attorney and Issa may still be at odds over the timing.

Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told “Fox News Sunday” that Lerner’s lawyers have indicated she will testify before his committee, after saying last week that she would not.

“It’s going to be a good, fact-finding hearing,” he said.”

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6. Yesterday Donna posted a link to a piece titled “If Daniel Three Were Written Today …”

Here’s a similar kinda piece, from Allen West. “The Book of Judges: Scary biblical parallels for America today”

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22 thoughts on “News/Politics 3-3-14”

  1. Can’t we just stay out of it?
    Yesterday our Pastor mentioned an interesting fact not being mentioned by the media – that the newly-elected president of Ukraine is an evangelical Baptist minister.

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  2. On the way to Bible study this morning, I heard this comment on the radio: “You’ve got the former community organizer versus the former head of the KGB. Who do you think is going to win?” And then commenting on why Obama took 90 minutes to talk to Putin when what needed to be said could have happened in less than 5 minutes.

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  5. Economic would be the best actions, which to the Obama admin’s credit, they have planned. But the problem here is that takes time, something they don’t have. Once again, our “intelligence” community is caught with their pants down.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/02/inside-obama-s-plans-for-economic-war-on-russia.html

    “The Associated Press reported Monday that Russia is already suffering some economic consequences of its aggression in Ukraine. The Russian stock market is down 12 percent, the ruble is falling, and the Russian central bank has hiked interest rates in an attempt to shore up the value of its currency.

    Behind the scenes, Obama administration officials are preparing a series of possible battle plans for a potential economic assault on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, an administration source close to the issue told The Daily Beast. Among the possible targets for these financial attacks: everyone from high-ranking Russian military officials to government leaders to top businessmen to Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine. It’s all part of the work to prepare an executive order now under consideration at the Obama administration’s highest levels.”

    Right out of the Reagan playbook.
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    Military action is definitely off the table. It’s not our fight, not that that has stopped us before. We’re weakened militarily right now, overworked, with cuts coming, and the Russians know it.

    And now China is siding with the Russians, so any thought of using them or the UN security council to solve it are silly. The power of veto rules. Either way, the UN will be useless as usual.

    http://news.sky.com/story/1219922/russia-and-china-in-agreement-over-ukraine

    “Russia has said China is largely “in agreement” over Ukraine, after other world powers condemned Moscow for sending troops into the country.

    Hundreds of Russian soldiers have surrounded a military base in Crimea, preventing Ukrainian soldiers from going in or out.”
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    Economic is the smartest option. But there isn’t time, so Putin wins. The Russians have placed a deadline on things. This will be over long before the sanctions could do anything.

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/03/world/europe/ukraine-tensions/index.html

    “In Crimea, more Russian troops arrived, surrounding military posts and other facilities and taking effective control of the continent from Ukrainian authorities. What they planned to do next remained unclear. In one ominous incident, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman said the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet boarded a blocked Ukrainian warship and issued a threat.

    “Swear allegiance to the new Crimean authorities, or surrender, or face an attack,” he said, according to the spokesman, Vladislav Seleznev.”

    “But a spokesman for the Russian Black Sea Fleet said there are no plans to storm Ukrainian military units in Crimea, according to the state-run Interfax news agency.”

    Putin is eating Obama’s lunch. He has nothing to fear from Obama, and he knows it. What he should concentrate on as well is trying to keep this from escalating into a military conflict. Ukraine wouldn’t stand a chance. Hopefully their officials realize this and will work toward a peaceful solution. But if Putin is intent on a fight, nobody is gonna stop him. Sad, but reality often is.

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  6. My question is – What should Obama do about it? The only thing Putin will listen to is force, & I doubt even force would scare him off his objective. Do we want to send troops out there? Should we send troops out there?

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  9. Are Ukranian children better off being raised in a nation allied with autocratic Russia or a nation allied with the perverted West? Are churches in the Ukraine better off in a country tied to Russia or a country tied to the largely atheist West?

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  11. To be entirely accurate its not an invasion as the Russians have at least two air bases in the Crimea plus the Crimea is the home of the Russian Baltic fleet. The west and the Ukraine need ascertain if Putin is merely securing Russia’s Crimean interests or this is the prelude to more activity. Obama’s long conversation is probably an attempt to answer just that question.

    As for possible responses, all the “actors” are behaving as you would expect. Russia appears to be willing to suffer some consequences as instability will lead to an exit of foreign money. Russia may attempt to turn the taps off the gas pipelines but like most resource based economies their customers actually hold a better set of cards.

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  12. Good points, HRW.

    My wife had a funny proposal for Christians called upon to bake cakes or prepare flowers for Sodomic celebrations: Charge them extra and do a poor job. You would quickly develop two reputations, a good one among heterosexuals and a bad one among the perverts.

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  14. Some independent contractors I know would deliberately over-estimate a job they really didn’t want to do.

    Another point about the Crimea — its more or less dependent on the Ukraine for water and electricity. Thus, long term viability of the Crimea separated from Ukraine is doubtful.

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  15. Good point about the Crimea, so it looks like Russia will try to take much of Southeast Ukraine. I will be curious to see how Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states react. I also think Germany will continue to replace the US as the leader of the West.

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  17. “I think that Barack Obama misunderstands the world, that he had limited experience of it and in it, and I think he has proved, as Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, said in another context, to be a very slow learner.” — Brit Hume Monday night.

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  18. And this from the Washington Post editorial board:

    “FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which ‘the tide of war is receding’ and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. … Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. … ”

    Ouch.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obamas-foreign-policy-is-based-on-fantasy/2014/03/02/c7854436-a238-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html

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  19. I really don’t see anything about what Obama is or isn’t doing–or should have done in the past–that would have any significant effect in Ukraine or Crimea. I think the entire story–for all the local turmoil–is overblown IRT global significance.

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  22. I don’t think anyone’s suggested an outright military response. We’re war weary and, for good or ill, have depleted our ability in that area at this point. Even if we hadn’t, a military response at this point would not be advisable.

    I suppose there’s just a wish for some of us that we had a more savvy president who had shown himself able to effectively deal with international issues in office at a time like this. Should be interesting if nothing else.

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