Obama took away our missile defense system out of Europe.
He reduced the military structure and put women on the front line.
And he expects the Russians, Chinese and Muslims to be good guys.
“
PP and NARAL want you to know that “black lives matter” with this Tweet.
“The case for Planned Parenthood as a wing of Black Lives Matter
The Republican fight to block funding to Planned Parenthood is a fight with black lives at stake.”
Sure is. But the only way you’ll save some black lives is to defund PP. They kill more blacks than anyone else on Earth, but seeing the irony is certainly not their strong point.
“The mainstream understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement is that it’s combatting the shooting deaths of young black men and women by law enforcement. But the GOP’s response to Planned Parenthood creates another battlefield: the systematic hijacking of black women’s health, the systematic erasure of black and brown women’s lives. Their literal lives and the lives of their future children.”
“Battles over abortion and funds for women’s health echo a history in America linking, poverty, abortion and government attempts to undermine black families.”
—————————————–
Says the group helping kill them by the millions. Talk about undermining….
The Left is prisoner to the tyranny of the minority. If a million babies have to die to prevent one women from dying from an illegal abortion, if ten citizens have to die from lack of police protection to prevent one thug form dying while resisting arrest, if every girl in the school is made to feeling uncomfortable so one transgender (boy?) can feel better about him/herself, if the religious rights of 70% of the population can be gutted so 2% don’t have to walk two blocks to another bakery, well that’s progress.
_______________________________
… an “Evangelical Statement on Responsible Care for Animals” was released Wednesday at the National Press Club.
Duke, a vice president at the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission joined with Ethics and Public Policy Center Vice President Michael Cromartie and The Clapham Group’s Mark Rodgers to develop a clear biblical statement to guide the religious faithful on animal care.
It has garnered the signatures of a who’s who of evangelical leaders including Richard Land of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, Willow Creek Community Church pastor Bill Hybels and Southern Baptist leaders Russell Moore and Albert Mohler. The Humane Society of the United States has affirmed the statement.
Many conservative evangelicals bristle at the mention of the animal rights movement because they believe it puts humans and animals on equal footing. But the evangelical statement is unequivocal that humans hold a unique status in creation. In fact, it’s this special status that demands humans practice extra care with all of God’s creation. The signatories affirmed the belief that, “all animals ultimately belong to God, are sustained by Him, and exist to bring Him praise and reveal His character.”
____________________________________
While our nation is killing a huge percentage of our human babies and is doing its best to turn those who are born into perverts, I would question any time spent by Christian leaders worrying about the care of horses and hamsters, particularly since our pets generally eat better than did our ancestors.
“A righteous man regards the life of his beast.” Proverbs 12:10
William Wilberforce, Hannah More, and the rest of the Clapham sect which worked to reform England in the late 1700s to early 1800s, campaigned not only against the slave trade, but also against the cruel treatment of animals, such as bull-baiting and cockfights. They felt that engaging in cruelty to animals would lead to treating fellow humans with cruelty. They had a point – one of Canada’s most brutal murderers in recent years began by killing kittens. Besides, treating even our meat animals cruelly actually endangers us, as cows and pigs living in overcrowded conditions require to be pumped full of antibiotics, which has led to the rise in antibiotic resistant infections – genetic tracing has linked several of the worst outbreaks to farm animals.
Not saying care of animals is somehow higher on a scale of concerns of human beings and God’s unique creation in humanity.
But amen to Wilberforce & others who, given a godly sensitivity to creation, to creatures that don’t have a voice, and pursue those causes as well. I disagree with the secular view of animals = humans, but that’s why I’m heartened to see this uniquely Christian view of caring for the beasts.
Make Putin and Russia look strong by actually leading. Obama’s lead from the rear methods are a joke internationally. He’s willing to fight the battles Obama doesn’t have the heart, or stones for. The world seeks leadership, despite my dislike for his methods and policies and him personally, he’s actually shown more than Obama and most in the west. Plus he get’s to thumb Barry in the eye, which is a bonus he appears to enjoy.
Also to embolden allies like Asaad, Iran, and others to stand up to the US and west.
All in all, looks like mission accomplished from here, even if he gains nothing else from it.
And just a reminder, Romney was right. Obama mocked him for it, but he shoulda listened. Maybe then Putin wouldn’t be eating Barry’s lunch.
The pope has a view of Marxism that’s less hostile than his predecessors, and that’s colored by his Argentine background as well: He sees communism as a failed ideology but not a live threat to the Catholic faith, one that’s no more dangerous (and now perhaps less so) than other ideological temptations, and one whose adherents can be approached in dialogue rather than confronted. His approach to both liberation theology and, more recently, to the Cuban regime — and the clear contrast with John Paul II in both cases — seem to reflect the experience of a man who lived under a right-wing dictatorship in which left-wing dissidents were persecuted, rather than, as with the Polish pope, the other way around.
Despite his professed “allergy to economic things,” the pope is clearly more interested in economic and “social justice” issues than he is in abortion, same-sex marriage, and the other questions associated with the West’s culture war. He also clearly believes the church has spent too much time focused on the culture war in the last two pontificates, and sees himself as offering a necessary corrective. ….
_____________________________
No, if Putin really wanted to lead, he would be going straight for ISIS. He is bombing the other rebel groups. He refused to let the U.N. lead against Assad years ago, when Assad’s atrocities were being exposed, and the Syrian people were peacefully protesting and ISIS hadn’t been formed. This isn’t about stopping ISIS for Putin. He let them range over Iraq without batting an eyelash. The U.S. and Canada stepped in to do something then. ISIS only came up on Putin’s radar when Assad began to be threatened.
Donna, did you see the report about the Pope meeting with Kim Davis? Well, did that ever cause a commotion amongst the pro-gay-marriage faction. Now they are saying they should have known that the pope wasn’t really liberal by his statements in the speech to Congress about the family being threatened. I saw a piece by just such an activist in the Guardian and he was livid, and so were the commenters. They have fallen just as quickly out of enchantment with him as they were with him.
Phos, I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that to Catholics, marriage is one of the holy sacraments. The Pope has to consider that. He may be liberal, but he has no authority to redefine Church doctrine.
I’m sure that he doesn’t want to.
Roscuro, yes, the article I posted mentions that. It’s a good piece, seems fair-minded.
Both sides, of course, try to politicize the pope. And I’m still quite sure that politics are alive and well inside the Vatican. This pope does represent a departure that — just saying — could push a door open for changes in the church down the road.
So there’s another mass shooting, this one in Oregon.
I know most of the tweets and commentary is about gun control and/or mental health treatment.
But more and more I view these awful (and too-many) incidents in a more starkly spiritual light, as very much a part of what we are witnessing overall in our lost culture.
Yes. While he may not be going after ISIS for the same reasons, he is none the less. Syria and Assad are his allies. He’s treating them as such. We may consider Assad a monster, but his allies see the groups threatening him as the real monsters.
The UN and US have wanted both Assad and ISIS removed. Putin doesn’t share that goal, although he believes that taking on ISIS would benefit the region and world. If you notice he went after US allied so-called “moderate groups” as well on day one. He sees what Obama refuses to acknowledge, that is that the moderates are as bad as ISIS. If they gain power they will rule exactly as ISIS does now in areas it controls. Sharia law either way. Neither group is our ally, and at least Putin recognizes this. Sadly many in the west do not. As bad as Assad is, the alternatives are no better, and maybe even worse.
I think you’re mistaken as well in thinking he doesn’t care about ISIS. Of course he let them rein freely in Iraq. The US was getting hammered for it, what reason did he have to interfere? They’re not his ally, and if it makes the US look bad, he wins either way. He cares about ISIS when it effects his allies and only then. Same goes for the UN. He could care less about their interests, as he should, because for all their bluster, they’ve been impotent and useless in the fight, as always.
Regardless of his motives, he’s taking them on, and whether we like it or not, many in the world appreciate him doing something, anything, especially when it’s obvious that the US and UN won’t/ can’t. He’s leading, but with only his interests in mind. Kinda like every country would like their leaders to do, with their interests first.
The White House is already exploiting today’s college shooting in a push for more gun control. Reports say he was asking victims their religion before shooting them.
Anon, all he is doing is supplying arms to his chosen ally and running bombing raids – which is exactly what the U.S. was doing and what it has been criticized for doing. There is no reason to suppose that his intervention will do anything but increase the chaos of the region. Putin may appear more canny than Obama, but there is no reason to think that he would make a better world leader.
I would disagree that every country would like their leader to lead with only their own interests in mind. For one thing, if he is a tyrant, his interests will not be shared by his country. The things I would like a leader to consider in making international moves are: Is the thing we want to accomplish right and just?; and, Can we make a positive difference rather than exacerbate the problem? It could be argued that Obama failed to ask himself those questions before sending arms to the Free Syrian Army. It is certain they don’t even occur to Putin.
One more thing, all this talk of a world leader reminds me of my childhood reading in Chick Tracts about the Anti-Christ and One World government. Now, I don’t hold to that particular apocalyptic scenario these days; but neither do I see why the world needs a prominent leader. ISIS needs to be dealt with, yes, but it needs whole groups of people willing to work for a long, hard time through all the problems and questions surrounding ISIS, not one man with a vision for saving another tyrant’s rule.
“The gunman who opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Oregon asked victims to state their religion before opening fire, according to multiple reports. An 18-year-old student told the News-Review newspaper that the gunman, after shooting her teacher in the head through a window, told people to get on the ground. He then told people to stand up and state their religion before opening fire. Twitter user @BodhiLooney, who said her grandma was at the school, said the shooter asked people if they were Christian. “If they said yes, then they were shot in the head,” she wrote. “If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs.””
“Putin signs decree drafting 150,000 conscripts into the Russian military… as Iran and Hezbollah prepare major ground offensive in Syria with air support from Moscow’s bombers
Russia launched airstrikes on rebel groups in Syria for second day straight
Country accused of targeting moderate rebels backed by U.S and not ISIS
Moscow foreign minister Lavrov has rejected the ‘rumours’ as ‘unfounded’
Hundreds of Iranian and Hezbollah troops ‘set to launch ground offensive’
Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country’s Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today.
One of the sources said the Iranian ground forces were ‘soldiers and officers’, not advisers, adding: ‘We mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more.’
They are being supported by Russia’s warplanes who bombed camps of rebel fighters trained by the CIA, one of the group’s commanders claimed.”
Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country’s Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today.
Hezbollah, Iranian troops? This is the leadership that is so good? With a bunch of allies like that, this is going to look like the coalition of ‘peacekeepers’ that terrorized The Congo. What about all the conservatives’ outrage over Obama’s agreement with Iran? Is that suddenly moot because these people are going to fight ISIS? What about the outrage that Obama was arming rebel groups affiliated with Al Qaeda? Is Putin suddenly wonderful because he is using Hezbollah to fight ISIS?
So Obama wants to bring in a hundred thousand mostly muslim Syrian refugees, yet can’t grant asylum to 22 Syrian Christians facing persecution and death at the hands of those same muslims. And he wonders why people question his faith, and loyalties.
“Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution at the hands of ISIS are being turned away at the American border despite having family sponsors – as thousands of Muslims are granted asylum.
At least 27 of the targeted minority, known as Chaldeans, have been held in detention in San Diego since entering through the Mexican border this spring.
Now, after months of waiting, 22 have denied asylum and sent back across the Atlantic to Europe, as another five await a verdict.
In total, America had accepted just 727 fleeing Christians at the start of 2015 – a fraction of the 4,200 Muslims granted asylum – and few since.
While statistically there are far fewer Christians than Muslims in the region, Lisa Jones, executive director of Christian Freedom International, told Daily Mail Online the minority group appear to face greater obstacles to reach safety.
‘It makes no sense,’ Jones said.
‘These are people from a Christian culture like our own that needs protection from ISIS. It is harder for Christians to move around Iraq and Syria to even get the chance to seek asylum.
‘While many more Muslims are granted asylum over here, Christians are being systematically exterminated.'”
No one is saying it’s good leadership, but it is leadership.
We’re still outraged over it.
I’m not saying his methods are good either, nor his choice of troops. Personally I despise the Iranians because they have the blood of US troops on their hands from Iraq. Hezbollah is ISIS in my opinion and should be treated the same way. But Putin is fighting a war we have cowered from, some of that for good and for obvious reasons, but in that region, reluctance to fight is seen as weakness and a sign of cowardice. And we shouldn’t be arming anyone because in case you haven’t noticed, those weapons keep ending up in the hands of ISIS anyway. Stupid policy, bad results. .
And you seem to have this idea that somehow we/I support Putin. He’s a commie piece of you know what. I’m just pointing out that in this lone instance, Putin has it right. And all of this could have been avoided had we done what needed doing from the get go. We didn’t, so now it’s time to give someone else the opportunity.
Or we could sit back and continue to whine about who’s more evil while ISIS expands, ‘cuz that hand wringing stuff has gotten us where we are now and is useless….
He pledged his country would not get sucked into a protracted military campaign and chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said the operation would be time-limited and not involve ground forces.
I wonder why I’ve heard that before…
Putin wants to muscle his way back onto the world stage after months of Western isolation following Russia’s seizure of Crimea and support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s powerful Orthodox Church voiced support for Moscow’s air strikes, calling it a ‘holy battle,’ but some in Russia dared to accuse the Kremlin of short-sightedness.
Alexander Konovalov of the Strategic Analysis Institute said Russia wanted to end its diplomatic isolation and may not realise the long-term consequences of intervention in the Middle East.
‘We were going to Afghanistan for six months and stayed there for 10 years,’ he told AFP, referring to a conflict that killed over 14,000 Soviet troops between 1979 and 1989.
Sixty-nine percent of Russians are against Moscow’s deployment of troops in Syria, with just 14 percent in favour, according to a recent poll by the Levada Centre.
Meet the new world leader, the same as the old world leader (only I can’t see Obama getting the President of the Southern Baptist Convention – as the largest American denomination – to call it a “holy battle”).
Apparently, neither the U.S. or Russia learned anything from the Cold War. The deja vu is strong here.
Anon, are you saying Putin has it right because he is going to put a stop to ISIS? He won’t. Or, if he does, he will have created another monster worse than ISIS. He has made an alliance with Iran and is bringing Iranian troop into Syria. That is not going to make Saudi Arabia at all happy. The Saudis already view ISIS with more tolerance than one would like to see. Oh, no, Putin isn’t solving anything. Israel is happy with it, because when the Arab States are fighting one another, they aren’t fighting them. Hezbollah in Syria, means Hezbollah isn’t firing rockets into Israel – for now. Israel has hitherto should no concern about the refugees, not even the Christian ones. Speaking of which, you think the refugee problem is bad now? If SA gets involved, things are going to be a whole lot worse.
And it’s already started, liberals think the pope was somehow “hoodwinked” or tricked into talking to Kim White, so there you go. He gets a pass on that one. 😉
I never was exposed to “chic”? Tracts, though I’ve heard of them.
I do think the U.S. has provided generally good and moral leadership for the world, but that era is likely over and done with. So be it. There will be dominant nations that will set the course, if not us, then others.
And sometimes over-exposure to some of that thinking can cause an extreme overreaction against it, though, causing us to have a skewed view from the other direction.
Well, as I wasn’t arguing for the U.N., or even for Obama, my analogy to The Congo doesn’t affect my argument. There is no quick military fix to the problem in the Middle East. The past should have demonstrated that to us. A low-key intervention that is truly based on an understanding of the region would serve far better in the long run, even if initially it seemed either to stagnate or even lose ground. The problem is, no one has the patience or perseverance for such a thing – not the leaders, not the public.
I agree with Donna on the matter of taking proper care of animals, that it isn’t an either/or kind of thing. We can care about more than one thing at a time.
As a human, I might prefer Singapore or Chile. If I was a dog, I would want to stay in the USA. Overseas, dogs are beaten and eaten. Here, I would get gourmet meals, doggie motels when the master leaves town and a nice vet who doesn’t have to deal with Obamacare. Plus, if I ever was homeless, half of the women on Facebook would be posting my picture trying to find me a new home.
I think the animal welfare issue speaks more to factory farming and the abuse animals being raised for food or other products are put through. And it’s a global concern, not limited to the U.S. of course.
I’m not opposed to eating meat, but there are some horribly cruel ways in which some animals are raised and penned that I think should be reformed with a humanitarian focus.
Wandering Views 
Obama took away our missile defense system out of Europe.
He reduced the military structure and put women on the front line.
And he expects the Russians, Chinese and Muslims to be good guys.
“
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PP and NARAL want you to know that “black lives matter” with this Tweet.
“The case for Planned Parenthood as a wing of Black Lives Matter
The Republican fight to block funding to Planned Parenthood is a fight with black lives at stake.”
Sure is. But the only way you’ll save some black lives is to defund PP. They kill more blacks than anyone else on Earth, but seeing the irony is certainly not their strong point.
http://twitchy.com/2015/09/24/irony-is-dead-naral-invokes-blacklivesmatter-to-defend-planned-parenthood/?utm_source=autotweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter
“The mainstream understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement is that it’s combatting the shooting deaths of young black men and women by law enforcement. But the GOP’s response to Planned Parenthood creates another battlefield: the systematic hijacking of black women’s health, the systematic erasure of black and brown women’s lives. Their literal lives and the lives of their future children.”
“Battles over abortion and funds for women’s health echo a history in America linking, poverty, abortion and government attempts to undermine black families.”
—————————————–
Says the group helping kill them by the millions. Talk about undermining….
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The Left is prisoner to the tyranny of the minority. If a million babies have to die to prevent one women from dying from an illegal abortion, if ten citizens have to die from lack of police protection to prevent one thug form dying while resisting arrest, if every girl in the school is made to feeling uncomfortable so one transgender (boy?) can feel better about him/herself, if the religious rights of 70% of the population can be gutted so 2% don’t have to walk two blocks to another bakery, well that’s progress.
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Black Lives Matter is directed against law enforcement. That’s all.
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From Kirsten Powers today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/09/30/animal-rights-religion-christian-evangelical-kirsten-powers-column/73028104/
_______________________________
… an “Evangelical Statement on Responsible Care for Animals” was released Wednesday at the National Press Club.
Duke, a vice president at the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission joined with Ethics and Public Policy Center Vice President Michael Cromartie and The Clapham Group’s Mark Rodgers to develop a clear biblical statement to guide the religious faithful on animal care.
It has garnered the signatures of a who’s who of evangelical leaders including Richard Land of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, Willow Creek Community Church pastor Bill Hybels and Southern Baptist leaders Russell Moore and Albert Mohler. The Humane Society of the United States has affirmed the statement.
Many conservative evangelicals bristle at the mention of the animal rights movement because they believe it puts humans and animals on equal footing. But the evangelical statement is unequivocal that humans hold a unique status in creation. In fact, it’s this special status that demands humans practice extra care with all of God’s creation. The signatories affirmed the belief that, “all animals ultimately belong to God, are sustained by Him, and exist to bring Him praise and reveal His character.”
____________________________________
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While our nation is killing a huge percentage of our human babies and is doing its best to turn those who are born into perverts, I would question any time spent by Christian leaders worrying about the care of horses and hamsters, particularly since our pets generally eat better than did our ancestors.
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Donna J, Did that qualify as a bristle?
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“A righteous man regards the life of his beast.” Proverbs 12:10
William Wilberforce, Hannah More, and the rest of the Clapham sect which worked to reform England in the late 1700s to early 1800s, campaigned not only against the slave trade, but also against the cruel treatment of animals, such as bull-baiting and cockfights. They felt that engaging in cruelty to animals would lead to treating fellow humans with cruelty. They had a point – one of Canada’s most brutal murderers in recent years began by killing kittens. Besides, treating even our meat animals cruelly actually endangers us, as cows and pigs living in overcrowded conditions require to be pumped full of antibiotics, which has led to the rise in antibiotic resistant infections – genetic tracing has linked several of the worst outbreaks to farm animals.
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Thanks Roscuro 🙂
Not saying care of animals is somehow higher on a scale of concerns of human beings and God’s unique creation in humanity.
But amen to Wilberforce & others who, given a godly sensitivity to creation, to creatures that don’t have a voice, and pursue those causes as well. I disagree with the secular view of animals = humans, but that’s why I’m heartened to see this uniquely Christian view of caring for the beasts.
It’s not necessarily an either-or proposition.
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Cruelty to animals is usually a bad sign for the people near by,
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That’s what I’m wondering: http://www.worldmag.com/2015/10/what_is_russia_s_endgame_in_syria
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The end game seems obvious to me…..
Make Putin and Russia look strong by actually leading. Obama’s lead from the rear methods are a joke internationally. He’s willing to fight the battles Obama doesn’t have the heart, or stones for. The world seeks leadership, despite my dislike for his methods and policies and him personally, he’s actually shown more than Obama and most in the west. Plus he get’s to thumb Barry in the eye, which is a bonus he appears to enjoy.
Also to embolden allies like Asaad, Iran, and others to stand up to the US and west.
All in all, looks like mission accomplished from here, even if he gains nothing else from it.
And just a reminder, Romney was right. Obama mocked him for it, but he shoulda listened. Maybe then Putin wouldn’t be eating Barry’s lunch.
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Obama has clearly left a vacuum in world leadership. So we get what we get — Russia. Lovely.
On a completely (sort of?) different topic, this seems to be a pretty thorough and fair assessment of the current pope & what he believes:
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/what-does-pope-francis-believe/
________________________
The pope has a view of Marxism that’s less hostile than his predecessors, and that’s colored by his Argentine background as well: He sees communism as a failed ideology but not a live threat to the Catholic faith, one that’s no more dangerous (and now perhaps less so) than other ideological temptations, and one whose adherents can be approached in dialogue rather than confronted. His approach to both liberation theology and, more recently, to the Cuban regime — and the clear contrast with John Paul II in both cases — seem to reflect the experience of a man who lived under a right-wing dictatorship in which left-wing dissidents were persecuted, rather than, as with the Polish pope, the other way around.
Despite his professed “allergy to economic things,” the pope is clearly more interested in economic and “social justice” issues than he is in abortion, same-sex marriage, and the other questions associated with the West’s culture war. He also clearly believes the church has spent too much time focused on the culture war in the last two pontificates, and sees himself as offering a necessary corrective. ….
_____________________________
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No, if Putin really wanted to lead, he would be going straight for ISIS. He is bombing the other rebel groups. He refused to let the U.N. lead against Assad years ago, when Assad’s atrocities were being exposed, and the Syrian people were peacefully protesting and ISIS hadn’t been formed. This isn’t about stopping ISIS for Putin. He let them range over Iraq without batting an eyelash. The U.S. and Canada stepped in to do something then. ISIS only came up on Putin’s radar when Assad began to be threatened.
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Donna, did you see the report about the Pope meeting with Kim Davis? Well, did that ever cause a commotion amongst the pro-gay-marriage faction. Now they are saying they should have known that the pope wasn’t really liberal by his statements in the speech to Congress about the family being threatened. I saw a piece by just such an activist in the Guardian and he was livid, and so were the commenters. They have fallen just as quickly out of enchantment with him as they were with him.
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Phos, I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that to Catholics, marriage is one of the holy sacraments. The Pope has to consider that. He may be liberal, but he has no authority to redefine Church doctrine.
I’m sure that he doesn’t want to.
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Roscuro, yes, the article I posted mentions that. It’s a good piece, seems fair-minded.
Both sides, of course, try to politicize the pope. And I’m still quite sure that politics are alive and well inside the Vatican. This pope does represent a departure that — just saying — could push a door open for changes in the church down the road.
So there’s another mass shooting, this one in Oregon.
I know most of the tweets and commentary is about gun control and/or mental health treatment.
But more and more I view these awful (and too-many) incidents in a more starkly spiritual light, as very much a part of what we are witnessing overall in our lost culture.
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Roscuro: They have fallen just as quickly out of enchantment with him as they were with him.
Ah, but I feel confident in this pope that that quickly change with his next public appearance and interviews. 🙂 They’ll forgive him, don’t worry.
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Roscuro,
Yes. While he may not be going after ISIS for the same reasons, he is none the less. Syria and Assad are his allies. He’s treating them as such. We may consider Assad a monster, but his allies see the groups threatening him as the real monsters.
The UN and US have wanted both Assad and ISIS removed. Putin doesn’t share that goal, although he believes that taking on ISIS would benefit the region and world. If you notice he went after US allied so-called “moderate groups” as well on day one. He sees what Obama refuses to acknowledge, that is that the moderates are as bad as ISIS. If they gain power they will rule exactly as ISIS does now in areas it controls. Sharia law either way. Neither group is our ally, and at least Putin recognizes this. Sadly many in the west do not. As bad as Assad is, the alternatives are no better, and maybe even worse.
I think you’re mistaken as well in thinking he doesn’t care about ISIS. Of course he let them rein freely in Iraq. The US was getting hammered for it, what reason did he have to interfere? They’re not his ally, and if it makes the US look bad, he wins either way. He cares about ISIS when it effects his allies and only then. Same goes for the UN. He could care less about their interests, as he should, because for all their bluster, they’ve been impotent and useless in the fight, as always.
Regardless of his motives, he’s taking them on, and whether we like it or not, many in the world appreciate him doing something, anything, especially when it’s obvious that the US and UN won’t/ can’t. He’s leading, but with only his interests in mind. Kinda like every country would like their leaders to do, with their interests first.
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The White House is already exploiting today’s college shooting in a push for more gun control. Reports say he was asking victims their religion before shooting them.
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Anon, all he is doing is supplying arms to his chosen ally and running bombing raids – which is exactly what the U.S. was doing and what it has been criticized for doing. There is no reason to suppose that his intervention will do anything but increase the chaos of the region. Putin may appear more canny than Obama, but there is no reason to think that he would make a better world leader.
I would disagree that every country would like their leader to lead with only their own interests in mind. For one thing, if he is a tyrant, his interests will not be shared by his country. The things I would like a leader to consider in making international moves are: Is the thing we want to accomplish right and just?; and, Can we make a positive difference rather than exacerbate the problem? It could be argued that Obama failed to ask himself those questions before sending arms to the Free Syrian Army. It is certain they don’t even occur to Putin.
One more thing, all this talk of a world leader reminds me of my childhood reading in Chick Tracts about the Anti-Christ and One World government. Now, I don’t hold to that particular apocalyptic scenario these days; but neither do I see why the world needs a prominent leader. ISIS needs to be dealt with, yes, but it needs whole groups of people willing to work for a long, hard time through all the problems and questions surrounding ISIS, not one man with a vision for saving another tyrant’s rule.
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Congratulate me, I survived (in silence) the president’s latest lecture on gun control, aired live in the newsroom. 🙂
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http://bnonews.com/news/index.php/tags/tag/id/808/
“The gunman who opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Oregon asked victims to state their religion before opening fire, according to multiple reports. An 18-year-old student told the News-Review newspaper that the gunman, after shooting her teacher in the head through a window, told people to get on the ground. He then told people to stand up and state their religion before opening fire. Twitter user @BodhiLooney, who said her grandma was at the school, said the shooter asked people if they were Christian. “If they said yes, then they were shot in the head,” she wrote. “If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs.””
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Looks like leading to me.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3255876/Russia-pouring-gasoline-fire-Syria-s-civil-war-says-America-Putin-defies-West-drops-bombs-non-ISIS-forces-fighting-Assad.html#ixzz3nL6RMXvF
“Putin signs decree drafting 150,000 conscripts into the Russian military… as Iran and Hezbollah prepare major ground offensive in Syria with air support from Moscow’s bombers
Russia launched airstrikes on rebel groups in Syria for second day straight
Country accused of targeting moderate rebels backed by U.S and not ISIS
Moscow foreign minister Lavrov has rejected the ‘rumours’ as ‘unfounded’
Hundreds of Iranian and Hezbollah troops ‘set to launch ground offensive’
Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country’s Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today.
One of the sources said the Iranian ground forces were ‘soldiers and officers’, not advisers, adding: ‘We mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more.’
They are being supported by Russia’s warplanes who bombed camps of rebel fighters trained by the CIA, one of the group’s commanders claimed.”
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Hezbollah, Iranian troops? This is the leadership that is so good? With a bunch of allies like that, this is going to look like the coalition of ‘peacekeepers’ that terrorized The Congo. What about all the conservatives’ outrage over Obama’s agreement with Iran? Is that suddenly moot because these people are going to fight ISIS? What about the outrage that Obama was arming rebel groups affiliated with Al Qaeda? Is Putin suddenly wonderful because he is using Hezbollah to fight ISIS?
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So Obama wants to bring in a hundred thousand mostly muslim Syrian refugees, yet can’t grant asylum to 22 Syrian Christians facing persecution and death at the hands of those same muslims. And he wonders why people question his faith, and loyalties.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3255382/Two-dozen-Iraqi-Christians-fled-ISIS-crossed-U-S-seeking-religious-asylum-booted-days.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus
“Iraqi Christians fleeing persecution at the hands of ISIS are being turned away at the American border despite having family sponsors – as thousands of Muslims are granted asylum.
At least 27 of the targeted minority, known as Chaldeans, have been held in detention in San Diego since entering through the Mexican border this spring.
Now, after months of waiting, 22 have denied asylum and sent back across the Atlantic to Europe, as another five await a verdict.
In total, America had accepted just 727 fleeing Christians at the start of 2015 – a fraction of the 4,200 Muslims granted asylum – and few since.
While statistically there are far fewer Christians than Muslims in the region, Lisa Jones, executive director of Christian Freedom International, told Daily Mail Online the minority group appear to face greater obstacles to reach safety.
‘It makes no sense,’ Jones said.
‘These are people from a Christian culture like our own that needs protection from ISIS. It is harder for Christians to move around Iraq and Syria to even get the chance to seek asylum.
‘While many more Muslims are granted asylum over here, Christians are being systematically exterminated.'”
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No one said it was good leadership, but it is leadership….
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No one is saying it’s good leadership, but it is leadership.
We’re still outraged over it.
I’m not saying his methods are good either, nor his choice of troops. Personally I despise the Iranians because they have the blood of US troops on their hands from Iraq. Hezbollah is ISIS in my opinion and should be treated the same way. But Putin is fighting a war we have cowered from, some of that for good and for obvious reasons, but in that region, reluctance to fight is seen as weakness and a sign of cowardice. And we shouldn’t be arming anyone because in case you haven’t noticed, those weapons keep ending up in the hands of ISIS anyway. Stupid policy, bad results. .
And you seem to have this idea that somehow we/I support Putin. He’s a commie piece of you know what. I’m just pointing out that in this lone instance, Putin has it right. And all of this could have been avoided had we done what needed doing from the get go. We didn’t, so now it’s time to give someone else the opportunity.
Or we could sit back and continue to whine about who’s more evil while ISIS expands, ‘cuz that hand wringing stuff has gotten us where we are now and is useless….
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Also from the Daily Mail article:
I wonder why I’ve heard that before…
Meet the new world leader, the same as the old world leader (only I can’t see Obama getting the President of the Southern Baptist Convention – as the largest American denomination – to call it a “holy battle”).
Apparently, neither the U.S. or Russia learned anything from the Cold War. The deja vu is strong here.
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And wasn’t that coalition terrorizing in the Congo a UN run affair? That doesn’t really help your argument.
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Anon, are you saying Putin has it right because he is going to put a stop to ISIS? He won’t. Or, if he does, he will have created another monster worse than ISIS. He has made an alliance with Iran and is bringing Iranian troop into Syria. That is not going to make Saudi Arabia at all happy. The Saudis already view ISIS with more tolerance than one would like to see. Oh, no, Putin isn’t solving anything. Israel is happy with it, because when the Arab States are fighting one another, they aren’t fighting them. Hezbollah in Syria, means Hezbollah isn’t firing rockets into Israel – for now. Israel has hitherto should no concern about the refugees, not even the Christian ones. Speaking of which, you think the refugee problem is bad now? If SA gets involved, things are going to be a whole lot worse.
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And it’s already started, liberals think the pope was somehow “hoodwinked” or tricked into talking to Kim White, so there you go. He gets a pass on that one. 😉
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I never was exposed to “chic”? Tracts, though I’ve heard of them.
I do think the U.S. has provided generally good and moral leadership for the world, but that era is likely over and done with. So be it. There will be dominant nations that will set the course, if not us, then others.
And sometimes over-exposure to some of that thinking can cause an extreme overreaction against it, though, causing us to have a skewed view from the other direction.
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Well, as I wasn’t arguing for the U.N., or even for Obama, my analogy to The Congo doesn’t affect my argument. There is no quick military fix to the problem in the Middle East. The past should have demonstrated that to us. A low-key intervention that is truly based on an understanding of the region would serve far better in the long run, even if initially it seemed either to stagnate or even lose ground. The problem is, no one has the patience or perseverance for such a thing – not the leaders, not the public.
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You know I’m not big on end times eschatology but I have to ask the question– how would this scenario look different if it wasn’t the end times?
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Putin just announced that Russia, Iran and Texas have formed the Axis of Heterosexuality.
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I agree with Donna on the matter of taking proper care of animals, that it isn’t an either/or kind of thing. We can care about more than one thing at a time.
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As a human, I might prefer Singapore or Chile. If I was a dog, I would want to stay in the USA. Overseas, dogs are beaten and eaten. Here, I would get gourmet meals, doggie motels when the master leaves town and a nice vet who doesn’t have to deal with Obamacare. Plus, if I ever was homeless, half of the women on Facebook would be posting my picture trying to find me a new home.
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I think the animal welfare issue speaks more to factory farming and the abuse animals being raised for food or other products are put through. And it’s a global concern, not limited to the U.S. of course.
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I’m not opposed to eating meat, but there are some horribly cruel ways in which some animals are raised and penned that I think should be reformed with a humanitarian focus.
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