Off topic, but it’s generally a good idea when confronting a guy like Putin not to broadcast your intent to the world. You don’t say something like that even if it’s true, because you kind of want Tsar Vladimir to wonder if you just might be crazy enough to pull the trigger. I mean, we always joke about anti-gun folks needing to stick a sign on their lawn saying “No Guns Inside,” but Obama just planted that in big bold lettering right on Ukraine’s front lawn.
How bad have things gotten when you trust the Chancellor of Germany to keep a lid on the situation more than your own President, because she’s got a bigger set of balls than he does?
Estonia appears to be next on the list?
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/353329/news/world/moscow-has-eye-on-ethnic-russians-in-estonia
Yeah, I saw that. Good thing Smart Diplomacy is on the job.
The only difference between Ukraine and Estonia is Estonia is a full fledged NATO member. Course even that might not matter with Capt. Wet Noodle at the helm of the US.
Because nothing follows up bravado and bulster quite like a stumbling total retreat.
Does this man even have the self awareness to realize why other countries aren’t going to trust a thing he promises?
Gee, geopolitics turns out to be a bit harder than trying to sell insurance doesn’t it? (Not that he’s terribly good about the latter, even when it’s a crime to not buy and the product is heavilly subsidized)
The Chancellor of Germany has the extra added benefit of growing up in East Germany where she learned to speak Russian fluently. Which gives her an advantage when dealing with Putin since nothing is lost in translation.
I didn’t know she spoke Russian. Putin speaks fluent German.
And, perhaps fittingly, the US president is less skilled in langauges than Bush. W was, if memory serves, semi-fluent in Spanish, where O is fully monolingual.
au contraire King Barack I speaks the language of incompetence fluently…
The whole freaking reason Putin is doing what he’s doing, is he knew from the start our amazingly incompetent president wasn’t going to do a darn thing. Putin is probably the last guy that wants a big, peer state shooting war and if he thought for a minute he’d get one, the bear would have stayed in it’s cave.
As soon as it was made apparent we were unwilling to fight at all, it was off to the races for the Ruskies.
I’m of the opinion that military force should be the option of last resort, but when you telegraph to your adversaries that you’re completely unwilling to use it for basically any reason, you give them a green light to do as they please.
Whereas Roosevelt said speak softly and carry a big stick, dear Barack says shot from the rooftops and carry a wet noodle….
We are dealing with a man that thinks “don’t call my bluff” is actually a threat.
“After my election I have more flexibility.”
To allow Russia to invade?