Superb post & nicely explained.

1938 all over again...

...doesn't mankind ever learn?

Superb post & nicely explained.

Yes.

Unfortunately, Putin HAS 'Started His March'.

If he doesn't go too far: Nothing a new American President can do, to 'Roll Him Back'.

The job of rolling him back will be that of the people in the conquered territory. As for holding Putin where he is, if he has to stand toe to toe with the US Military, I don't think he has the stomach for a full confrontation.

Again such an action would take an American leader with the resolve and spine to carry it through. It's easy to 'confront' a non-tangible adversary like 'Income Inequality' or 'Climate Change' (both concepts being fairy-tales conjured to frighten the masses into agreeing to more taxes), but a real enemy looking you in the eye is a different ball of wax entirely.

Putin is well aware of what the US did to the Republican Guard in Iraq in 1991, the destroyed Russian supplied weapons of the third largest army in the world, were spread along 100 miles of the road to Baghdad. The current drop in oil prices will tighten the Russian military budget eventually and may be to only thing that will slow him down.

:Dg

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

Blimey, you want your bread buttered both sides? :-)

The current drop in oil prices will tighten the Russian military budget eventually and may be to only thing that will slow him down.
:Dg

Not this year!
Russian Defense Budget to Hit Record $81 Billion in 2015
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-defense-budget-to-hit-record-81bln-in-2015/509536.html

The current drop in oil prices will tighten the Russian military budget eventually and may be to only thing that will slow him down.
:Dg

Not this year!
Russian Defense Budget to Hit Record $81 Billion in 2015
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-defense-budget-to-hit-record-81bln-in-2015/509536.html

That's the point, $81 billion budget planned on oil at +$100 a barrel, with less than planned revenue where will the cuts be? Despite his public go-it-alone tough guy persona he answers to the oligarchs controlling the economy. If they feel a less aggressive posture would improve their personal wealth that is what will happen.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

Stayin' Thirsty said:

It's easy to 'confront' a non-tangible adversary like 'Income Inequality' or 'Climate Change' (both concepts being fairy-tales conjured to frighten the masses into agreeing to more taxes),...

Man O Live, I Could Read This Dude's/Dudette's Stuff All Day.

Anyways, 'it' 'is' Girkin and Dugin The West should Worry About. Phabulous Putin 'is' Tame compared to Them.

Yep

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

The current drop in oil prices will tighten the Russian military budget eventually and may be to only thing that will slow him down.
:Dg

Not this year!
Russian Defense Budget to Hit Record $81 Billion in 2015
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-defense-budget-to-hit-record-81bln-in-2015/509536.html

That's the point, $81 billion budget planned on oil at +$100 a barrel, with less than planned revenue where will the cuts be? Despite his public go-it-alone tough guy persona he answers to the oligarchs controlling the economy. If they feel a less aggressive posture would improve their personal wealth that is what will happen.

The cut has already been done to everything but the military budget for 2015.
“For Putin the priority is the army, the secret service and the bureaucracy. And also financing pensioners, the main supporters of the regime,” Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader and former deputy prime minister, wrote on his Facebook page. “All the same . . . a reduction in people’s real incomes and a rise in poverty is unavoidable.”

I seem to recall a guy named Yeltsen who despite being inebriated a majority of the time wrested control from the ruling faction once the people and the military got fed up with the crappy economy.

As you said, who controls the military?

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

Putin became aware of this opportunity to increase Russian influence shortly after the 2006 election in the US when Barrack Hussein Obama became 'leader of the free world' (not my terminology). This awareness was inspired by Obama's “Apology Tour”, where he espoused regret for the idea of American Exceptionalism, and all but groveled before the King of Saudi Arabia.

Pretty sure that was 2008 (technically even 2009 as thats when the President Elect becomes the actual President).

Putin felt that there would be little or no reaction from so weak an American Administration, an estimate that proved to be correct. The opportunity to test his theory came during the Arab Spring in Syria. By supporting Bashar Assad's war on his own people(including gas), he watched the American reaction carefully. The 'Red Line' was drawn by the President then ignored when it was violated.

That is not entirely true. First of all, America was about to start bombing, when it was Putin that swooped as the peace dove by reaching a diplomatic deal with Assad to have him destroy his chemical weapons. Boy did Putin make you guys look like idiots back then.

And second of all, don't blame all of this on Obama. Your house Republicans probably did more to convince Putin that America didn't have its act together than anything Obama ever did.

That failure to act on his own words convinced Putin that he was dealing with a moral and physical coward, another accurate estimate. The weak, half-hearted 'sanctions' that were imposed after the Crimea invasion only emboldened Putin to further pushes into Ukraine.

Those 'weak half hearted sanctions' did just tank the Russian economy.

But thats not good enough. No, you warmongers prefer to go to open war with Russia. Because the two largest nuclear powers in the world waging open war against each other is totally not a scary prospect that should be avoided at all times and at every cost. Yes, that does give Putin a certain degree of power, it means he can get away with annexing Crimea and secretly supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine. So be it if the alternative brings us to the brink of extinction.

As to 'American Exceptionalism' it is not a conceited concept or a derogatory statement to the rest of the World it is a statement of fact. 'American Exceptionalism' refers to the way the US has conquered it's own shortcomings (mostly) by being a melding of the many cultures who immigrated here during the first 175 years after it's founding. This integration of many into one (not always without struggle) gave the US the financial, industrial, medical, and yes military ability to come to the aid of the world when needed.

In other words, you guys are so full of your own awesomeness that you think that excuses blatant imperialism. See, you might be convinced that America is the most awesome place in the world, its just that the rest of the world doesn't agree with that assessment.

Unfortunately in the last 40 years a climate has existed here which encourages cultural separation under the label 'diversity'. The same has occurred in Europe, Britain and Scandinavia with the results now coming home in the form of Radical Islam. This has resulted in a path of de-homoginization in American culture. Adversarial conduct has replaced civilized debate and now the citizens have been divided again by a leader who continually pits one against the other for political gain.

Seriously? See, this is why the rest of the world doesn't believe you when you talk about how awesome you are. Its a blatant lie. You culturally separated the country in the past 40 years? You mean you never did that before? Riiiiiight, American history begs to differ.

De-homogenization? As if American culture ever was that homogenic to begin with. Sure, white people declared that being a WASP was the cultural 'norm' but that is just blatantly ignoring everyone who wasn't a WASP but still American.

It's absurd of Putin agreeing to the withdrawal from Ukraine of Russian fighters and weapons that he says aren't there in the first place.

Мишель, that may be the view given by the average red neck poster here in Seti politics, but not necessarily that of the American administration. Although I agree that at times it comes damn close to it. At present the USA is probably the top super power, but both Russia and China are gearing up to be a close joint second very soon.

I dont actually think Russia is a world power anymore. A regional power, sure, but it lacks the means to be a true world power. China will be capable of being a world power within one or two decades. The question for them is whether they will use their power. It could just be that they are not interested in getting involved in conflicts or problems that are at the other end of the world, or that they will attempt to set up a system where their interests are located all over the world, like the US has done.

Also, I think it depends on the president on whether they think the US is exceptional. Obama clearly doesn't think the US exceptional, but that should hardly be a surprise. The guy is an intellectual, he is to smart to buy into the exceptionalism myth, and aside from that, he is from a background that never was part of the whole exceptionalism myth. To put it bluntly, the whole idea that America is awesome only applies to white Americans because America has only been awesome to them. Non-white groups in the US have never at any moment in history experienced the same level of chances and opportunities that have been there for white people.

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

If America is so bad WHY DOES THE REST OF THE WORLD KEEP TRYING TO MOVE HERE?

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

If America is so bad WHY DOES THE REST OF THE WORLD KEEP TRYING TO MOVE HERE?

They don't actually.

If America is so bad WHY DOES THE REST OF THE WORLD KEEP TRYING TO MOVE HERE?

They don't, only ~70,000/year into the US, about 250,000/year into the UK.

And if you hadn't worked it out, the UK, population 61 million, is about the same size as Oregon, population 3.8 million.

They said i could be anything...
So i became a bottle cap.

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

If America is so bad WHY DOES THE REST OF THE WORLD KEEP TRYING TO MOVE HERE?

They don't, only ~70,000/year into the US, about 250,000/year into the UK.

And if you hadn't worked it out, the UK, population 61 million, is about the same size as Oregon, population 3.8 million.

Statistcs from DHS state:

This Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) Annual Report
presents information on aliens determined inadmissible,
apprehended, arrested, detained, returned, or removed,
during 2013.
1
Key findings in this report include:
• CBP determined approximately 204,000 aliens were
inadmissible.
• DHS apprehended approximately 662,000 aliens; 64
percent were citizens of Mexico.
• ICE detained nearly 441,000 aliens.
• Approximately 178,000 aliens were returned to their
home countries through processes that did not
require a removal order.
• DHS removed approximately 438,000 aliens from the
United States.
2
The leading countries of origin for
those removed were Mexico (72 percent), Guatemala
(11 percent), Honduras (8.3 percent), and El Salvador
(4.8 percent).

Doesn't seem to support your 70,000...........and these figures were for those actually caught, many thousands more got away.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

They said i could be anything...
So i became a bottle cap.

LOL!!!!!!

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Who's least bad?

Russia, China, USA?

Who would you want Dominating International Trade and Law?

Russia, China, USA?

In the Real World: Who would you align with, to protect yourself?

Russia, China, USA?

Yes, a choice has to be made. Never in History, nor Presently, is the choice between Good and Evil. It has always, and will always be, between Bad and Less Bad.

+1

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>