Our current Secretary of State John “I served in Vietnam†Kerry whined on the Sunday talk shows about how Russian President (and Dictator-for-Life) Vladimir Putin was playing by “19th century rules, not 21st century norms†in the ever-deepening crisis in the Crimea region of the Ukraine. This kind of feckless hand wringing is an epidemic within this administration and the Progressive belief system as a whole. What the president and secretary of state fail to realize is that Putin plays by his own rules — and his rulebook says that the aggressor in any conflict makes the rules and sets the terms.
Putin, as Russia’s Commander-in-Chief, shows by his moves in the Crimea that he has done his homework on the current administration and he knows how it will react even before it does. It is no coincidence that Putin moved troops into the Crimea two days after the administration announced US troop reductions to pre-WW II levels. It does not take much time or effort for his intelligence officers stationed in Western Europe to see that the once mighty and powerful U.S. Army Europe (USAEUR) — with two full Corps, five divisions, and a handful of separate brigades at its command — is a shell of its former self.
All that remains of the force that during the Cold War would stop the advance of the WARSAW Pact if WW III kicked off is one Stryker Cavalry Brigade, one Airborne Infantry Brigade, a Combat Aviation Brigade, and if pressed into service, an Infantry Battalion that is primarily used for training. That’s it as far as ground forces.
Last spring, USAREUR proudly proclaimed the last of the M1 Abrams tanks and M2A2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles would be transported from Germany back to the US. In the administration's latest round of decimation of the U.S. Military, it announced that one of the main types of aircraft — the A10 “Warthog†— that would be needed in a dust up with the Russians is going away.
Not just a wing here or a squadron there. All of them … gone.
You’d have to be the most naive person on the planet to think that Putin and his military planners didn’t notice that and figure it into their war plans. Even if the US wanted to respond with more than empty rhetoric, it couldn’t. NATO can’t either because without the might of the U.S. Military, NATO doesn’t have the will or the manpower to pull off a counter move against the Russian forces assembled in the Crimea.
Former KBG agent Putin knows that when POTUS goes on TV and wags a finger towards him telling him to pull his troops back, Obama doesn’t really mean it. Especially when a mere half hour later he’s at a posh DNC function cheerily declaring “It’s after 5 o’clock, that means it’s officially Happy Hour in the Democratic Partyâ€.
Putin knows that Obama grew up at the knee of well-known Communist Frank Marshall Davis, is a devout follower of Saul Alinsky, and that his talk about the right of everyone to seek freedom is just that, talk. He also knows that in the current secretary of state (and I’d say his predecessor as well) is what Nikita Khrushchev allegedly described as a “useful idiotâ€.
Putin has not forgotten that Kerry, the current tough-sounding political functionary, is the same one that betrayed his brothers in arms in 1971 with his perjury before Congress. And that this is the same man who tried to go to Paris and negotiate a surrender with Communist North Vietnam and who threw his medals over the White House fence.
Putin also realizes that Secretary of Defense Hagel is a mere “yes†man to this president who will do what he’s told and ask no questions when it comes to dismantling the military that once faced down the Soviet Empire that Vlad seeks to rebuild.
While the Obama administration has been dismantling the US Armed Forces, the Russians have been modernizing, upgrading, and expanding theirs. Russian spy ships are once again docking in Havana, Bear Bombers are once again challenging US airspace off the coast of Alaska and flying their old routes towards Western Europe as well to test reaction times of European air defense. And let’s not forget that Putin has moved long range ballistic missles to their most forward point in Western Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Putin the politician knows that he has a limited time frame to accomplish his goals. His expansionist desires are only possible when weak-kneed spineless Progressives occupy the White House. Putin knows that even a RINO like George W. Bush wasn’t afraid to put the might of the U.S. military behind his tough talk when it was called for. He has no such worries with Progressive Democrats running the show.
However, Putin is keen enough on American politics to see the dissatisfaction with Democrats in the US and that Conservative Republicans stand a better than average chance at taking the Senate, holding the House, and setting up a return to Republican leadership in the Presidency. If he’s going to rebuild the empire, Putin has to do it now. He is also taking advantage of the current U.S. strategy of abandoning our traditional allies and foreign policy bullwarks while cozying up to people who want to see dead Americans across the globe.
Traditional allies and even more recent ones across the Middle East are turning to Russia as a new best friend in the region has come to the realization that America’s word doesn’t mean squat right now.
John Kerry’s very public declaration last November that the Monroe Doctrine is “dead†empowered Russia to seek to negotiate for military bases in South and Central America. By the time US voters can replace the Keystone Cops in charge of foreign policy with adults who understand how the world runs, we’re going to find ourselves surrounded, outgunned, and without a friend.
Kerry has it wrong on what Putin is doing, however. It’s not 19th century rules Vladimir is playing by, it’s 21st century realism versus 1960′s anti-war political philosophy run amok in Washington. If anyone is stuck in the past it’s the current crop of Progressives who are running this country into the ground. While Progressives are busy turning swords into ploughshares, the Russians (along with Communist China and North Korea) are beating ploughshares into Kalishnakovs, MiGs, and T-82s.
So, while the Olympics were going on and the world was focused on Sochi, Putin was focused on the Crimea and his once-dreaded Black Sea Fleet. It’s not a far distance to travel from Sochi to the Crimea and Putin’s “Ring of Steel†that was created to ostensibly protect the Olympics from Muslim terror threats now threatens the people of the Ukraine.
And what about our soldiers? What are they preparing for? According to an article at theweek.com, sailors and airmen are too busy working with an LGBT support group on an all ranks “Drag Queen†show to worry about warrior tasks and battle drills.
No wonder Putin and the rest of the world have lost their respect for the United States and no longer take seriously anything we say when they aim to further their imperialistic goals.
~ Silence Dogoodhttp://hoocoodanode.com/2014/03/04/silence-dogood-kerry-surrenders-us-foreign-policy-putin-carves-out-imperialistic-future/