Tony_Tarantula on 19/4/2014 at 03:54
Quote Posted by Slasher
Obama couldn't even drum up support for cruise missile strikes against Assad when chemical weapons were involved.
Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly in money and political capital. It will probably be years before the US can get an honest war boner on again.
There's also another factor. Something that most of the world realizes about Obama is best described by John Reed:
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Obama is a serial bluffer—his “red lines” and “consequences” and all that. That bluffing every time is the same mistake the boy who cried wolf made. Obama may get us all killed with that crap. As any poker player can tell you, if you never bluff, you can only win when you have good cards. But if you always bluff, you will not win for long. You will lose. When it's the president who is doing it, we are the ones who may lose.
As I've stated before, there is a common theme with all of the events occuring world-wide this year:
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We recently had the Arab Spring were each of a half dozen countries leaders were toppled by people demonstrating in the streets—started by one poor man who committed suicide because police demanded money from him as a price to keep operating his pushcart. Was he a kook? Ask one of the Arab leaders who lost his job in the ensuing street demonstrations. The Thai government has had trouble with street demonstrations. Demonstrations in Ukraine ran the president out of the country. Then the Russians came into Crimea and they are now, using the pretext of street demonstrations in Eastern Ukraine, about to invade there, too. Syria has suffered greatly from a civil war. They're rioting in Argentina and Venezuela.
The general impression of seeing all this on TV again and again, and now in our own Nevada, sends the message that if enough people get pissed off enough, they can achieve the real change that the political consultants playing turn-out-the-vote and other statistical political games denied them on election day.
One underlying issue in Ukraine is that the revolution started because people were having a hard time getting by....and consequently they were no longer willing to accept the rule of a Russian imposed oligarchy. No amount of outside political posturing and covert machinations will change that.
PigLick on 19/4/2014 at 05:00
Tony whoever the hell your were in your previous ttlg life, can you just stop posting for a few days at least, please?
june gloom on 19/4/2014 at 06:49
Quote Posted by PigLick
Tony whoever the hell your were in your previous ttlg life, can you just stop posting for a few days at least, please?
PigLick on 19/4/2014 at 09:14
sometimes I actually love the dethman
i KNOW....
Tony_Tarantula on 19/4/2014 at 13:54
Quote Posted by PigLick
Tony whoever the hell your were in your previous ttlg life, can you just stop posting for a few days at least, please?
Sorry you're offended, but that doesn't mean anything I quoted was wrong.
Despite all the talk, the USA isn't going to do jack shit and everyone (except some Americans) knows it. I'm not entirely sure what all of Obama's "red lines" and "consequences" are supposed to be. The fact of the matter is that the US is not in any economic position to take meaningful action against Russia or China.
It's also something that Western politicians will not admit, but the fat of the matter is that Western nations are not stable enough at this time to do so. While it's not covered much in American media, a lot of European nation's grasp on power is far more tenous than most people believe. The same is also true in America where we are beginning to see the first omens of widespread civil unrest.
Since I'm apparently so crazy that everything I say is worth a blanket dismissal, don't take it from me:
(
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/03/us-europe-unrest-ilo-idUSBRE9520OI20130603)
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Overall, the risk of unrest in the EU "is likely to be due to the policy responses to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis and their impact on people's lives and perceptions of well-being." the United Nations agency said.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/unrest-may-spread-across-europe-warns-red-cross-chief-8631698.html)
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http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/11/17/european-civil-unrest-is-now-widely-expected-by-eu/)
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In France, an internal secret report of the French government warns of nationwide civil unrest as the economy simply implodes with rising taxes and higher unemployment. The French people are reported are simply “full of tension, frustration and anger” all because their purchasing power decreases (deflation) in the face of ever increasing tax burdens
(
http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2014/2013/12/social-unrest-2014)
(
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/04/14/american-civil-unrest-is-starting-on-schedule/)
(
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2013/08/01/Scientists-say-global-violence-could-rise-with-global-warming/UPI-78951375402686/)
(
http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2014/04/13/zehntausende-protestieren-in-rom-und-paris-gegen-regierungen/)
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In Paris folgten nach Angaben der Polizei etwa 25.000 Menschen dem Aufruf linker Parteien, die Kommunistische Partei sprach gar von 100.000 Teilnehmern
Sorry......it's stupid to try to pretend that the two trends of Rising tension between Russia and NATO, and the drastically accelerating trend of civil unrest are not related or that they don't accelerate each other. To do otherwise is to willingly choose to embrace the myopic, binary thinking that has made American politics such a disaster over the past few decades.
nemyax on 19/4/2014 at 21:19
This is all well and good, but where's the Russian invasion that Kerry promised? The popcorn's getting stale.
icemann on 20/4/2014 at 10:14
Have to say that I agree with Tony where the US is concerned. They outplayed their little boy who cried wolf routine with Syria. After that, the world stopped taking them seriously.
There is only going to be so many times that you can say "don't cross that line or ELSE" and then do nothing when they cross it, before your completely ignored.
At the end of the day, the US wont do a thing, no matter what happens in the Ukraine. The entire country could get invaded and they'd do zip. For the rest of Europe I'm not sure on that one, of if they'd get together and do something, though my moneys on a similar response.
Much of it as Tony said, comes down to the $$$ and the rest from not wanting to start World War 3, which would be Russia + China vs the rest of us.
zombe on 26/4/2014 at 09:15
Rather refreshing to see a proper poll - with some basic documentation. Did not see anything unexpected in it, but good to have one.
