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My, my, my.....well Neo Cons and Neo Libs. Read it and Breathe Deep. Looks like on this issue.....Obama is really backing up the First Team. As unfortunate as it is. Putin.....the Bully Kid that Obama said was sitting in the back of the class showed Obama why he was just visiting. :lol:
"We've kind of hit a wall," President Barack Obama commented last week on his way to Russia. He meant his relationship with Moscow, but the remark came to apply as well to other leaders abroad, lawmakers at home and Americans at large, all standing in the way of what he wanted to do about Syria, which was to attack it.
Just days later, military action is on hold, a diplomatic effort to have Syria turn over its chemical weapons has some steam and Obama no longer looks so terribly alone. The potential way out took shape with an episode akin to palace intrigue: Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin pulling up chairs in a corner of a stately room at the summer home of Peter the Great, after a very late night of fireworks and lasers etching the St. Petersburg sky. And it grew from there.
It's all been enough to stir some gushing admiration in the halls of Congress for a clever president who knows how to conduct statesmanship when the pressure's really on. The president of Russia, that is.
A look at how the past days' parallel tracks — pushing for approval of a military attack while pausing to give diplomacy a chance — unfolded:
With plenty of U.S.-Russian tensions simmering — over Syria, Moscow's sheltering of former NSA leaker Edward Snowden and more — Obama decided there would be no formal one-on-one with Putin. But the Russian leader, the Syrian government's leading patron on the world stage, approached him Friday and they pulled chairs together off to the side.
Flanked only by interpreters, with other leaders looking on, they launched into a 20-minute discussion about Syria. There was no breakthrough on one vexing aspect of their disagreement — the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, Putin broached an idea that the two leaders had first discussed a year ago at the G-20 summit in Mexico — an international agreement to secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles.
Obama agreed that could be an area for cooperation and suggested Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov follow up. You wouldn't know it from Obama's public mood that day, but seeds had been planted.
"I cannot look at those pictures — those little children laying on the ground, their eyes glassy, their bodies twitching — and not think of my own two kids," said Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, as part of the lobbying offensive.
Nothing seemed to be working. More and more lawmakers stepped forward to declare their opposition to military strikes. The dynamics — for and against military action — were strikingly bipartisan.
Some members of Congress were beside themselves, trying to make sense of it all. First the Obama administration had appeared to be marching toward a strike. Then the president hit pause and asked Congress to approve his course. Then came the Russian idea, so yet another pause. Altogether, the arguments of the administration had grown awfully complicated and seemed to be changing by the hour.
"I'm going to start looking for medication," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. , remarked Tuesday morning. "This place is a zoo."
Obama's address to the nation Tuesday night wasn't the trumpet call to action that it might have been, absent the diplomatic initiative on Syrian chemical weapons. His statement reflected the complexities of the moment — a chance to avoid war, as he saw it, but a continuing need for congressional approval to keep a credible military threat alive.
"The whole terrain has changed," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after a meeting of Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We want to make sure we do nothing that's going to derail what's going on.".....snip~
How the Syria plan broke through, just in time
Hopefully the next time.....Putin wont have him jumping thru Hoops rather than tricking him into bringing Checkers to that game of Chess! :doh
Great informative post. Thank you!
LOL. I guess Kerry will be "I was for the war before I was against the war" again :mrgreen:
There is something that I admire in Putin independent of politics--he is a crafty fellow.
Russia: We are going to crush these people in Chechnya
US: Russia is evil for oppressing these poor Chechnyans yearning to breathe free
Russia: Hey, FBI, you better keep in eye on this dude from Chechnya
**crickets**
BOOM!!
US: Why hasn't Russia done something about these evil people from Chechnya?
I sort of get why he is "Whatever" with the Obama and the US
NP Mags.....Just hard to believe that Putin set it in Motion since Mexico. Over a year ago.
Yeah, and Putins been kicking Obama's ass on it because he's right, on THIS issue.
LOL. I guess Kerry will be "I was for the war before I was against the war" again :mrgreen:
There is something that I admire in Putin independent of politics--he is a crafty fellow.
The icing on the cake would be that if Russia bought the rights and changed the name of Heinz Field to Putin Field :2razz:
Hey the guy is a billionaire--he could afford it :3oops:
Let's not get ourselves too excited just yet about the situation in Syria. This is, so far, merely talk of a CW surrender/destruction and in exchange for absolutely nothing except the U.S. backig down and allowing Assad to buy and use more conventional weapons continue is plan to kill off his opposition. Is Obama, and by expention the U.S. taxpayer, still intent on arming the "good" opponents of Assad? Our foreign aid and policy is based on some fairly bizarre and contradictory goals, often involving paying both sides in a conflict to make nice, while ignoring military coups and some fairly major human rights violations.
Putin probably actually plays chess while Obama plays checkers with Malia and Natasha and loses most of the time.
You have to be street wise with dealing with Putin. He's a street thug (X-KGB) and like most thugs they want respect they haven't earned. When dealing with Putin you have to have perpetual vision or Putin will cold **** you when your not expecting it.
Where as Obama was given the benefit of doubt in the beginning and shown the respect he never earned and soon it was obvious, Obama wasn't ready for the major leagues.
Sasha?
Let's not get ourselves too excited just yet about the situation in Syria. This is, so far, merely talk of a CW surrender/destruction and in exchange for absolutely nothing except the U.S. backig down and allowing Assad to buy and use more conventional weapons continue is plan to kill off his opposition. Is Obama, and by expention the U.S. taxpayer, still intent on arming the "good" opponents of Assad? Our foreign aid and policy is based on some fairly bizarre and contradictory goals, often involving paying both sides in a conflict to make nice, while ignoring military coups and some fairly major human rights violations.
Heya Ttwtt. :2wave: Yeah.....and in the meantime Putin is going to sell some S300 Modified to Iran while offering to help build them a second reactor. Sure hope he isn't dealing from the a trick deck. Announced Right away as the Russians work on that Chem issue with Assad. :shrug:
Heya Ttwtt. :2wave: Yeah.....and in the meantime Putin is going to sell some S300 Modified to Iran while offering to help build them a second reactor. Sure hope he isn't dealing from the a trick deck. Announced Right away as the Russians work on that Chem issue with Assad.
Good evening, ttwtt. :2wave:
Unless Syria has the same kind of MSM that we have, and is serving as a propaganda arm of the regime, it is reported that Assad has the approval of 70% of the Syrian people. So it would appear that the only people who don't like Assad are people outside Syria. And he did try to aid the village of Christian believers who were being slaughtered by the rebels. Is any of this true?
These S-300 SAM's aren't good news for Israel. These upgraded S-300's air defense missiles will be able to shoot down aircraft over Israel.
What's also significant about these missiles, they are equal to our Patriot SAM's and can shoot down Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Good evening, ttwtt. :2wave:
Unless Syria has the same kind of MSM that we have, and is serving as a propaganda arm of the regime, it is reported that Assad has the approval of 70% of the Syrian people. So it would appear that the only people who don't like Assad are people outside Syria. And he did try to aid the village of Christian believers who were being slaughtered by the rebels. Is any of this true?
How long have you known the Israelis man?
My old man loved them and respected them more than any fighters in this World.
They are our Ace-in-the-whole. Interest on our down-payment if you will.
Let's not get ourselves too excited just yet about the situation in Syria. This is, so far, merely talk of a CW surrender/destruction and in exchange for absolutely nothing except the U.S. backig down and allowing Assad to buy and use more conventional weapons continue is plan to kill off his opposition. Is Obama, and by expention the U.S. taxpayer, still intent on arming the "good" opponents of Assad? Our foreign aid and policy is based on some fairly bizarre and contradictory goals, often involving paying both sides in a conflict to make nice, while ignoring military coups and some fairly major human rights violations.
Heya Ttwtt. :2wave: Yeah.....and in the meantime Putin is going to sell some S300 Modified to Iran while offering to help build them a second reactor. Sure hope he isn't dealing from the a trick deck. Announced Right away as the Russians work on that Chem issue with Assad.
:shrug:
I have no idea what you're talking about and and I don't even have any beer in the fridge.
Are you serious? You don't think the Israelis can't take care of themselves with your S-300.
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