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Posts Tagged ‘Ukraine’

Dr. Stephen F. Cohen on Ukraine crisis

by 1389AD ( 48 Comments › )
Filed under Europe, Russia at March 7th, 2014 - 7:00 am

Another great interview from George Kenney and a breath of fresh air amongst the stale tripe we have served up to us now:

Electric Politics: The Ukraine Blues

(h/t: J. P. Maher)

One feels frighteningly disoriented, hearing an American president support deadly mob violence for what is, essentially, counter-revolutionary change (in the form of IMF austerity). The president’s message may be directed at unknown people far away but the effects are certain to be felt here, possibly for generations, as the bindings of what relative peace we have come undone. I was extremely fortunate to be able to talk with Dr. Stephen F. Cohen about the crisis in Ukraine. He’s in a tiny minority willing to discuss what’s really happening. This is an unscheduled podcast on breaking news. [Audio file reposted at The Nation, here.] Total runtime forty eight minutes. Vae victīs.

MP3 file here.

From George Kenney:

Last Saturday evening I interviewed Dr. Stephen F. Cohen about the crisis in Ukraine. Because of timeliness I thought it best to turn this interview around as quickly as possible, so here it is. Steve has been an expert on things Russian for a very long time indeed — he was a professor at Princeton for about thirty years and taught at NYU for about another ten years after that. You used to see him regularly on the news but his brand of sympathy for the Russians has gone out of style. Well, more than that really. Any sense of objectivity regarding Russia seems to be forbidden these days. Thus you have Steve being sensible about the crisis in Ukraine and 99.99% of the other commentators taking a “let’s hate the Russians and let’s especially hate Putin” line. It reminds me very much of the atmospherics surrounding the Yugoslav civil war, except at least in that case a vocal minority in favor of a more objective approach was able to be heard. This is much worse. If, indeed, I hadn’t lived and worked through the Yugoslav civil war I wonder whether I would be able to understand that the public debate over Ukraine could be so tragically unbalanced!

This is an important show. I hope you listen. And if you like the show please forward the link.

http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2014/02/the_ukraine_blues.html

Another Palin Prediction Comes True! Where’s Her Apology From The Entire Political Left?

by Flyovercountry ( 61 Comments › )
Filed under Conservatism, Republican Party, Russia, The Political Right at March 5th, 2014 - 7:00 am

Political Cartoons by Gary McCoy

I have a vision in my mind of Darth Vader addressing a scared Luke Skywalker, who just screwed up by letting slip that Leia was indeed his sister, and coincidentally the daughter of an uncaring Vader. “And now his failure is complete,” really said it all.

As Russia rolls its tanks and troops into Crimea, I am reminded of other events within my life time that saw similar happenings. Not that today’s aggressive behavior is in any way the same as those dark days of the Cold War, when the Soviets sent their military into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. Today’s act of aggression you see came after the Bamster and Hillary gifted some Russian apparatchik with that famed, “reset button.” Right on cue, our leader’s, (and I use that term loosely,) in Washington are shocked, shocked, I tell you, to learn that the Russians have taken the Obama Administration’s foreign policy as a sign of American weakness.

Charles Krauthammer said it most eloquently in about a minute and a quarter last night.

 

Here’s the transcript of Krauthammer’s analysis:

Remember the speech he gave at the U.N. when he started his administration? He said no nation can or should dominate another. I mean, there’s not a 12-year-old in the world who believes that. And he said the alignment of nations rooted in the cleavages of the long ago Cold War make no sense in this interconnected world. As our Secretary of State said today, or yesterday, after all this, this is a 19th century action in a 21st century world. As if what he means his actions where governments pursue expansion, territory domination, no longer exist in this century, as if that hasn’t been a constant in all of human history since Hannibal. They imagine the world as a new interconnected world where climate change is the biggest threat and they are shocked that the Russians actually are interested in territory.

The parallels to Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy are too strong to not mention. Carter, like Obama, spent his time as President traveling the globe heaping praise upon America’s adversaries while chiding and ridiculing America’s allies. He too was shocked, shocked, I tell you, to learn that the Soviets would invade Afghanistan when it suited them to do so. I guess that the lesson we can all take from this is the same one we’ve learned every time there’s a Democrat in the White House, which is that the Kumbayah School of foreign policy leads to unmitigated disaster for us and the rest of the world as a whole.

What ever level of intervention you feel United States involvement should exhibit or forgo is not what caused this. What caused this latest example of Russian aggression was what always causes such things. They took a good look at a President with a foreign policy that can be labeled most generously as feckless, and a U.S. Secretary of State who declared that the completely farcical myth of global warming was our nation’s most feared enemy, saw that our Teleprompter in Chief was moving forward with his plans to reduce our military to ashes, and determined quite correctly that we were in no position to defend anyone or anything. Crimea is now paying the price associated with that reality.

yes, for my Russian friends, the Cold War is over and the Russians have eschewed the Socialism that once plagued their economics. Vladimir Putin however is a veteran of the Cold War, and as a former leader of the KGB, it would appear, at least to the casual observer, that bringing back the old Soviet Satellites to an existence within the fold may be one of his objectives. Achieving that end by force is something he is perfectly comfortable with. Our discussions on this particular part of our foreign policy need to accept that reality. Especially since some of the former Soviet Satellites are now member nations of NATO, Ukraine being one of them.

Just one more thing to point out here. Remember how Sarah Palin was so roundly ridiculed for being, “stupid,” when she predicted this exact event way back in 2008? Remember how Barack Obama, “the smartest guy in the room,” won major snark points for his line that the 1980’s had contacted Mitt Romney and demanded their cold war mentality back? I guess we can officially put those two memes to bed now.

Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.

How To Obama

by The Kraken ( 150 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Communism, Marxism, Progressives, Uncategorized at March 3rd, 2014 - 7:00 am

The President and his handlers know exactly how to handle Ukraine.  Don’t think they’ll be harmed by any Russian advances. Their only concern is how not to be hurt by it politically at home.  The only thing he ever cared about internationally was reducing Israel which backfired when Netanyahu schooled him and the horse he rode in on, live on worldwide television.  No, the threat is an awakening American population.  Not that I think that will happen.  Just that’s the threat.

Long term, he will find ways to paint American conservatives as “little Putins”.  The worse things are for Ukraine, the better off the politics will go for this administration, down the road.  All he has to do is make it through the urgent phase of this without getting schooled in public.  So the whole thing hinges on the media.  Expect a distraction on the scale of the Petraeus/Broadwell affair, and a whole lot of “analysis” saying of the Ukraine that it really *is* Russia’s back yard, and how would we like it, and that’s their people, borders are just lines on a map, and so forth.

I am sure that the administration is pretty agitated right now.  These are unscripted events that they must deal with, and they don’t like dealing with things.  But they are good at it, as it affords them opportunities to push unrelated agendas.  Never let a crisis go to waste.

Ukraine – Another Perspective

by 1389AD ( 12 Comments › )
Filed under Orthodox Christianity, Special Report at March 1st, 2014 - 9:56 am

Podcast from Ancient Faith Radio:

James George Jatras
James George Jatras

February 26, 2014 Length: 34:13

As we continue to follow the news in Ukraine, Ancient Faith Radio is commited to bring you a balanced perspective on the events and implications for the Orthodox Church. Today, Kevin Allen is speaking with Ukrainian expert and Orthodox Christian Mr James Jatras. Mr Jatras is a former US diplomat, US Senate staffer and a member of the American Institute of Ukraine.