Poking the bear
Yesterday, the Obama Administration issued a warning to the Russians to stay out of Ukrainian affairs. So this morning we awake to pictures of armed soldiers with no patches on their uniform at two airports in the Crimea. From the Washington Times;
But Thursday’s events and the grim warnings from powerful U.S. lawmakers that Russia ultimately will invade Ukraine just as it did Georgia in 2008 demonstrate that the Obama administration, whether it likes it or not, is at odds again with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the global stage.
Analysts say there is little the U.S. can do, other than issue strongly worded statements or pursue some economic sanctions, if the situation deteriorates.
For now, the White House is sticking with statements.
“We strongly support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and we expect other nations to do the same and so we are closely watching Russian military exercises along the Ukrainian border,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Thursday.
That was yesterday, today, troops at airports, and ships in the Black Sea, says Fox News;
A Reuters eyewitness at the scene said the men were dressed in full battle gear and carrying assault rifles and machine guns. They were reportedly moving freely in an out of a control tower.
On Thursday, masked gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles seized the parliament and government offices in Simferopol and raised the Russian flag over the parliament building.
Ukrainian officials sharply denounced the move. Ukrainian police cordoned off the area, but didn’t confront the gunmen.
The more that this administration tries to do in regards to this action, the weaker they will appear on the world stage. Putin’s gonna do what Putin is gonna do. We’ve already made it clear that we don’t approve, and that’s all we can reasonably do. It was charitable of the Washington Times to call some US lawmakers “powerful” but we’re really powerless in this whole thing. What are we going to do? Drone Putin?
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Foreign Policy
Seriously, I would make a joke.
And, once again, we have the Russians showing us their idea of “how to win friends and influence people hasn’t changed.” They are slow on the uptake.
A one-liner from the right kind of President, right now, could change the world.
MSN that is.
@RB325th Yes but are their sleeves UP or Down, that way Amos the idiiot will know if it is a War or not.
Becasue of our so called leadership “Poking the Bear” sounds like a new euphmism for Masterbation.
@54. Poking the bear comes under the category of betiality.
Here’s that damn s. You know where it goes.
I don’t get it. Obama is a coward, through and through. Further, his military is at its weakest in decades. Why would be irritate an enemy like Russia when he doesn’t have the force or the cohones to back it up?
I don’t gamble, but I believe the point of a bluff is to make the other person actually believe you are going to do what you say.
@53, they are complying with General Amos and have their sleeves down…
Also video up on youtube of a large number of Sovie.. I mean Russian HINDs flying into the Crimea.
Well, it looks like we’re on the brink of a real international flashpoint here. If this goes south, this very well could be the opening hours of World War 3.
Above video is of the helicopters coming in.
I saw Hips and Hinds in that video.
We need a thread set up to monitor the Ukranian flashpoint 24/7. We might be at war by the end of the weekend.
@62: With who? Obama couldn’t get the American people to support a series of limited strikes against a half-dead opponent in Syria, you think there’s even 5% of the people in this country who would favor a shooting war with an enemy that still has ICBMs pointed at us? Really?
@63: I don’t think public opinion matters horrifically much to the President.
I see it as this: If the EU gets involved, we will get involved. That’s what I’m hoping we won’t hear, but it might happen.
@64: Obama is about as likely to start a war with Canada as he is to start one with Russia. Which is to say zero, zilch, nada.
And the EU: Fight a war? With what army? The EU doesn’t have an army, they hid behind the skirts of the US for 60 years and those few EU soldiers who have the ability to pull a trigger are in Afghanistan now serving with ISAF.
Nobody’s starting a war. The EU and the UN will stamp their feet, bluff and bluster, furrow their brows and then do nothing. It’s what they do best.
@48: Very well put. BZ
It’s more likely that China would see this as a threat and paw the ground and snort over it.
Anyone who actually gives the Dilettante in Charge credence for understanding what he’s up against has got rocks in his head. If this were the 1960s, we’d hear about this by proxy, maybe a few grainy photos or negs smuggled out to the West. But it isn’t the 1960s, it’s now, and this kind of thing is going to go on for some time to come. Vlad is over there at his desk, directing things, and when he gets a message from WDC and bodaprez, he reads it, crumples it up and drops it into an ashtray, where he sets it on fire and snorts with laughter.
Martinjmpr: I agree (cmt 65). Europe could barely get together two decades ago to do anything about Bosnia. And then, it took the US getting involved to get anything done. Ditto Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Libya.
I also don’t see this as being a compelling issue for the US. Bluntly put: in the great scheme of things, who owns the Crimea – or even Ukrainian independence – simply doesn’t matter all that much to the US.
The only way we end up involved is if this Administration is clueless enough to do something monumentally stupid. And though I have a very low opinion of this Administration’s foreign policy competence, I think even they will see getting US forces involved in this would be a “very bad idea”.
@64/65: Obama has made some stern statements towards Russia in the last few days, but we know that it was just talk, and so does Putin. Europe won’t do a damn thiing, without the US giving support to it. We can’t give support to anything at this time, considering Obumbles is in the process of gutting the military. We can expect more lip service from Obumbles, when he’s not wetting his pants worried that Vlad is going to kick his ass in the Oval Office, and the msm will continue to attempt to ignore it in order to run cover for Obumbles tough talk that went South, once again.
All in all, the world is going to see that Obumbles, and to a larger extent the US, is weak in leadership and won’t/can’t do anything to stop bad actors around the world. It’s going to be open season and it’s just getting started. Welcome to smart diplomacy circa 2014!!
I really don’t like it any way we look at it. I do feel like this is the tip of a very nasty iceberg, and the next couple of days are going to get worse and worse from here.
It already looks like what I thought was going to happen: Russian forces being deployed in “peacekeeping” operations in order to establish a friendly government. What happens from here is anyone’s game. Likely you guys are right, and it’s just going to be another coup for Russia, but… Our President has a nasty tendency to do all the wrong things, and he got us involved in Libya, after all.
The funniest thing about Obama’s stern ‘warnings’ is that nobody – not even his supporters – believe he’s anything but talk.
@70: That’s the exception that proves the rule. Obama is only interested in military action where he can fire a few shots at a nearly defenseless enemy and then declare “victory.” If Obama wouldn’t take on the Mullahs of Iran (and he wouldn’t), there’s no way he’s going to engage the much more competent troops of Russia.
Furthermore, Obama’s own coalition of tree huggers, greivance-mongers, and hemp-wearing hippies would not even back his “unbelievably small” war against Syria, there’s no way in hell they’d stand still for an attack against an enemy that shoots back, and Obama NEEDS the support of anybody who is still deluded enough (or corrupt enough) to give it.
Hondo (@68) I agree on the both the lack of EU capabilities and US interests. That’s why Kerry and the rest of the Administration would have been better off just not saying anything rather than issuing completely unconvincing threats.
Farflung Wanderer. Relax. There will not be any war. Putin will go in, kick some ass, station some muscle for a while, and either reduce forces or stay. What is it about this issue that is causing such concern? I don’t get it. Or maybe I do and just don’t understand what all the fuss is about. There was a gov’t. SOME people decided that the road taken by that gov’t wasn’t one they wanted to travel. They sttok to the streets, violence erupted, the gov’t troops and police did what gov’t troops and police will do: kill people. And that’s that. So, what am I missing?
Found Uncle Joe!!
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/24849326/vp-joe-biden-lands-in-phoenix-for-fundraiser
I find it odd that they’re trying to sign people up for the affordable care act in Scottsdale (Or as we say in southern AZ “Snottsdale”).
Calypso Facto: agree completely. Incidents such as this merely reinforce my impression that their claim to fame won’t be as the “most transparent Administration in history”, but as the most incompetent.
@ #1 “He should be sure to include being Putin’s bitch when he writes his biography.”
God help us, he’s already written two of them.
@71.
I am seeing that more and more everyday for similar and different reasons.
A lot of folks that put him in office are upset now that they are not getting their “cut.”
1979 Afghanistan scenario.
Good Lord, am I really this old?
@79 – You, too?
79 & 80 – Too late to boycott the Olympics now!
Well, Ukraine’s acting President made a statement. They know a shooting war is a bad idea, and they’re going to prevent it best they can, but they will resist any attempt of annexation by Russia.
It’s very interesting that the msm is very quiet on this, including Fox News. I wonder why? (that’s a rhetorical question, I know why)
@82: If they resist, there will be a shooting war, it’s that simple.
The Emperor about to give a presser…
@85: Yeah, then he’s running off to a DNC fundraiser at the Capitol Hilton. Just like always; shit starts getting real and he takes off for a campaign stop or fundraiser. You can always count on Captain limp wrist to run away when it’s time to do the job of President.
The president is warning Russia of “costs” associated with pursuing its current course of action.
Yeah, I’m sure ol Vlad is just a-shaking in his boots! :rolleyes:
Cargo planes in the Crimea: http://news.msn.com/world/ukraine-official-8-russian-cargo-planes-in-crimea
Will there be another charge of the Light Brigade? Stay tuned.
I’m expecting a siege at Sevastopol.
Send in Task Force Barry?
“I didn’t set the red line, the WORLD set the red line!” oh, and if you like your doctor, you can keep him. and, and and, geez I don’t have enough room in the comments for all the lies this sanctimonious double dealing piece of offal spews. I am so glad I am 3 weeks away from retiring and won’t have to walk into our lobby and see the portraits of Obamao and the used car salesman any longer. Yeah, Putin is really scared of you, why don’t you warn him again but use harsher language?
P.S. I am SO tempted to go in the office on my last day and put a stick-on red nose on the official portraits in the lobby. SO SO tempted….
Biden with a shotgun, wearing one of those oversized Navy helmets, riding through the Valley of Death on a jackass. Both sides would be laughing so hard that they might just kiss and make up.
We have our Monroe Doctrine, Putin has his own doctrine I’m sure. If the #1 US naval base was under threat, we’d probably take action too. I’m not crazy about Putin, but Russia has an entirely different history, and it’s not pretty.
But if Mitt Romney had been elected, I’m sure he could have solved the problem with a wave of his magic wand.
Um. Joe. You didn’t hear, I guess. The Monroe Doctrine was repudiated a few months ago by The Emperor’s lacky at the State Dept, John “Jungle Stroll w/ Cameraman” Kerry. Google it. That, of course, came with the prior approval of the sissy in chief. And thanks for not blaming Bush. Romney was good. No one knows what he would have done had he been elected so that’s a safe target to speculate about. Obama, on the other hand, we don’t have to guess about. He has a well deserved reputation for being a royal asshole. Ditto Hillary “wide Load” Clinton (What difference does it make now?)
Air Cav, don’t be too hard on Joey. He’s just doing what Progressives do, bending history to fit his perception of it. I’m sure he’s down with the “strongly worded” statement that Barrycade issued.
After all, if Vlad keeps it up, Barrycade will “consider” not attending the G8 summit in Sochi.
@96. I thought I was being nice. I could have said something like, “Hey, dumbshit. The Monroe Doctrine was killed by The Emperor months ago, but I guess Marvel Comics didn’t carry that story so you missed it.”
Oh, I kinda wished that you had now.
UpNorth brings up a great idea: Maybe Obama can send the Park Service over to erect Barrycades around the Crimean
I’m not happy about it, but I can understand Russia’s apprehension at losing it’s primary naval base. When stuff has happened in our own backyard we’ve been know to bend the rules (Bay of Pigs, Granada, etc, etc.). As unsavory as Putin’s actions are, I don’t see securing their naval base as being equivalent to their invasion of say Hungary or Czechoslovakia, or as a return to their expansionist ways. We’ll see. Not like we have a whole lot of influence in that part of the world.
“or as a return to their expansionist ways”? What do you call annexing the territory of a neighboring state? Granted, there is some evidence that the Crimea is more Russian than Ukranian, so why not do a plebiscite?
Or, is it just more fun to a.annex something you feel is yours, anyway. b.poke your biggest rival in the eye, because they’re being run by someone who’s more concerned that it’s 5p.m. and happy hour at a dem fund raiser?