Thursday, September 04, 2014 6:29:03 PM
3 months ago .. Obama Reassures Eastern European Allies of US Commitment
Published on Jun 3, 2014
U.S. President Barack Obama assured Poland and its eastern European neighbors on Tuesday that the U.S. commitment to their security was sacrosanct at the start of a four-day trip meant to show U.S. resolve after the Russian intervention in Ukraine.
Standing with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Obama said the U.S. plans to send more military equipment and rotate additional U.S. troops into the region. He called on lawmakers in Washington to provide the $1 billion in funding to sustain the effort.
The European Reassurance Initiative .. more .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTfur4pol4
yesterday .. President Obama Addresses the People of Estonia
The White House - Published on Sep 3, 2014
On September 3, 2014, President Obama addressed the students, young professionals,
civil leaders, and the people of Estonia at the Nordea Concert Hall in Tallinn, Estonia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWAnzKtFPkE
.. the embedded video in this one is a segment, beginning 16:09, of the one just above ..
Obama's Russia paradox: Why he just threatened WWIII in order to prevent it
Updated by Max Fisher on September 3, 2014, 12:10 p.m. ET @Max_Fisher max@vox.com
President Obama gave a speech on Wednesday, in a city most Americans have never heard of, committing the United States to possible war against Russia. He said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a Western military alliance better known as NATO .. http://www.vox.com/2014/4/2/5570654/9-questions-about-nato-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask , would fight to defend eastern European members like Estonia against any foreign aggression. In other words, if Russian President Vladimir Putin invades Estonia or Latvia as he invaded Ukraine, then Putin would trigger war with the US and most of Europe.
Obama's speech from the Estonian capital of Tallinn, though just a speech, may well be America's most important and aggressive step yet against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. While the speech will do nothing for Ukraine, it is meant to stop Russia from invading, or perhaps from sponsoring rebellions in, other European countries — so long as those European countries are part of NATO, as most are.
"Obama wants to prove the us will defend estonia, without making that actually necessary"
"We'll be here for Estonia. We will be here for Latvia. We will be here for Lithuania," President Obama said from the capital of Estonia, one of the three Baltic states that were once part of the Soviet Union but now are members of NATO. "You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again."
Obama was making a promise, and a very public one meant to reverberate not just in European capitals but in Moscow as well: If Russia invades any member of NATO, even these small Baltic states on the alliance's far periphery, then it will be at war with all of them — including the United States.
Members of NATO in blue; the US and Canada are also members (Geneva Tribune)
"The defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London," Obama said. To be really clear: that defense means war with Russia, which has the world's second-largest military and second-largest nuclear arsenal, a prospect so dangerous that even during the angriest moments of the Cold War, the world managed to avoid it.
The idea, though, is not that Obama wants to go to war with Russia, it's that he wants to avoid war with Russia — this is also why the US and Europe are not intervening militarily in Ukraine to push back the Russian tanks — but that avoiding war with Russia means deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading these Baltic states in the first place by scaring him off.
The risk of such an invasion, by the way, is real: these countries are about one-quarter ethnic Russian, and Ukraine's own Russian minority which was Putin's excuse for invading Crimea in March. Putin also clearly sees former Soviet states as fair game; he has invaded Ukraine and Georgia, both marked in red on the above map. So the Baltic states are rightly terrified that they are next .. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/71d9145c-3268-11e4-a5a2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3CGbBVTXS.
"no one is sure whether the us would really defend former soviet members of nato"
Here is Obama's dilemma, and Europe's: They want to prove to Putin that they will definitely defend Estonia and Latvia and other eastern European NATO members as if they were American or British or German soil, so that Putin will not invade those countries as he did in Ukraine. But the entire world, including Putin, is suspicious as to whether or not this threat is a bluff. And the worst possible thing that could happen, the thing that could legitimately lead to World War Three and global nuclear war, is for Putin to call Obama's bluff, invade Estonia, and have Obama's bluff turn out to not be a bluff.
(Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the threat of nuclear war: Russia announced on Wednesday, shortly after Obama's speech, that its strategic nuclear forces would conduct "major exercises .. http://www.newsweek.com/russias-strategic-nuclear-forces-hold-major-exercise-month-268056 " later this month.)
This all started when NATO invited a bunch of former Soviet states, such as Estonia, to join in the 1990s and 2000s because it wanted to keep them safe from Russian aggression, and wanted to isolate Russia. The entire point of NATO is as a military alliance, and mostly an anti-Russian one, in which declaring war against one member means you are at war with all of them. So the idea is that this will prevent Russia from invading Estonia, because this would trigger war with the US, UK, Germany, France, and many others, which Russia would lose.
But no one is really sure whether the US and other Western European countries would be willing to go to war against Russia should Putin invade a peripheral NATO member such as Estonia or Latvia. Western analysts are legitimately divided on how this would play out, and it is not hard to find former — or current — US officials who worry that, if the moment came for NATO to launch World War III in defense of Estonia, they would decide that it was not worth the trouble.
That's why Obama went to the Estonian capital of Tallinn this week, and why he stood up with the Estonian prime minister to pledge as clearly as possible that he would definitely go to war against Russia if it came to it — precisely so that it never will come to that.
Card 1 of 24 Launch cards .. http://www.vox.com/cards/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know/what-is-the-ukraine-crisis#E5865548
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/6101507/obama-just-committed-the-us-to-war-against-russia-if-it-invades
It's dicey. In these troubled times we are lucky to have a cool, calm, considerate and deliberative
head at the helm of the U.S.A. which, like it or not, is still seen at the head of the Western world.
Growing Pressure on Obama to Do Something Stupid
By Andy Borowitz
Credit Photograph by Pete Souza?/The White House
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Arguing that his motto “Don’t do stupid stuff” is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) led the attack on Thursday, blasting Obama for failing to craft a stupid response to crises in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine.
“Instead of reacting to these events with the haste and recklessness they deserve, the President has chosen to waste valuable time thinking,” McCain said. “This goes against the most fundamental principles of American foreign policy.”
Graham also expressed frustration with the President, telling reporters, “The American people are waiting for President Obama to do something stupid, but their patience is wearing thin.”
In his most withering criticism, McCain called Obama’s “stubborn refusal to do stupid stuff” a failure of leadership. “If I were President, you can bet your bottom dollar I would have done plenty of stupid stuff by now,” he said.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/growing-pressure-obama-something-stupid
h/t DesertDrifter for Andy B's .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=105931536
Published on Jun 3, 2014
U.S. President Barack Obama assured Poland and its eastern European neighbors on Tuesday that the U.S. commitment to their security was sacrosanct at the start of a four-day trip meant to show U.S. resolve after the Russian intervention in Ukraine.
Standing with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Obama said the U.S. plans to send more military equipment and rotate additional U.S. troops into the region. He called on lawmakers in Washington to provide the $1 billion in funding to sustain the effort.
The European Reassurance Initiative .. more .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTfur4pol4
yesterday .. President Obama Addresses the People of Estonia
The White House - Published on Sep 3, 2014
On September 3, 2014, President Obama addressed the students, young professionals,
civil leaders, and the people of Estonia at the Nordea Concert Hall in Tallinn, Estonia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWAnzKtFPkE
.. the embedded video in this one is a segment, beginning 16:09, of the one just above ..
Obama's Russia paradox: Why he just threatened WWIII in order to prevent it
Updated by Max Fisher on September 3, 2014, 12:10 p.m. ET @Max_Fisher max@vox.com
President Obama gave a speech on Wednesday, in a city most Americans have never heard of, committing the United States to possible war against Russia. He said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a Western military alliance better known as NATO .. http://www.vox.com/2014/4/2/5570654/9-questions-about-nato-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask , would fight to defend eastern European members like Estonia against any foreign aggression. In other words, if Russian President Vladimir Putin invades Estonia or Latvia as he invaded Ukraine, then Putin would trigger war with the US and most of Europe.
Obama's speech from the Estonian capital of Tallinn, though just a speech, may well be America's most important and aggressive step yet against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. While the speech will do nothing for Ukraine, it is meant to stop Russia from invading, or perhaps from sponsoring rebellions in, other European countries — so long as those European countries are part of NATO, as most are.
"Obama wants to prove the us will defend estonia, without making that actually necessary"
"We'll be here for Estonia. We will be here for Latvia. We will be here for Lithuania," President Obama said from the capital of Estonia, one of the three Baltic states that were once part of the Soviet Union but now are members of NATO. "You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again."
Obama was making a promise, and a very public one meant to reverberate not just in European capitals but in Moscow as well: If Russia invades any member of NATO, even these small Baltic states on the alliance's far periphery, then it will be at war with all of them — including the United States.
Members of NATO in blue; the US and Canada are also members (Geneva Tribune)
"The defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London," Obama said. To be really clear: that defense means war with Russia, which has the world's second-largest military and second-largest nuclear arsenal, a prospect so dangerous that even during the angriest moments of the Cold War, the world managed to avoid it.
The idea, though, is not that Obama wants to go to war with Russia, it's that he wants to avoid war with Russia — this is also why the US and Europe are not intervening militarily in Ukraine to push back the Russian tanks — but that avoiding war with Russia means deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading these Baltic states in the first place by scaring him off.
The risk of such an invasion, by the way, is real: these countries are about one-quarter ethnic Russian, and Ukraine's own Russian minority which was Putin's excuse for invading Crimea in March. Putin also clearly sees former Soviet states as fair game; he has invaded Ukraine and Georgia, both marked in red on the above map. So the Baltic states are rightly terrified that they are next .. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/71d9145c-3268-11e4-a5a2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3CGbBVTXS.
"no one is sure whether the us would really defend former soviet members of nato"
Here is Obama's dilemma, and Europe's: They want to prove to Putin that they will definitely defend Estonia and Latvia and other eastern European NATO members as if they were American or British or German soil, so that Putin will not invade those countries as he did in Ukraine. But the entire world, including Putin, is suspicious as to whether or not this threat is a bluff. And the worst possible thing that could happen, the thing that could legitimately lead to World War Three and global nuclear war, is for Putin to call Obama's bluff, invade Estonia, and have Obama's bluff turn out to not be a bluff.
(Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the threat of nuclear war: Russia announced on Wednesday, shortly after Obama's speech, that its strategic nuclear forces would conduct "major exercises .. http://www.newsweek.com/russias-strategic-nuclear-forces-hold-major-exercise-month-268056 " later this month.)
This all started when NATO invited a bunch of former Soviet states, such as Estonia, to join in the 1990s and 2000s because it wanted to keep them safe from Russian aggression, and wanted to isolate Russia. The entire point of NATO is as a military alliance, and mostly an anti-Russian one, in which declaring war against one member means you are at war with all of them. So the idea is that this will prevent Russia from invading Estonia, because this would trigger war with the US, UK, Germany, France, and many others, which Russia would lose.
But no one is really sure whether the US and other Western European countries would be willing to go to war against Russia should Putin invade a peripheral NATO member such as Estonia or Latvia. Western analysts are legitimately divided on how this would play out, and it is not hard to find former — or current — US officials who worry that, if the moment came for NATO to launch World War III in defense of Estonia, they would decide that it was not worth the trouble.
That's why Obama went to the Estonian capital of Tallinn this week, and why he stood up with the Estonian prime minister to pledge as clearly as possible that he would definitely go to war against Russia if it came to it — precisely so that it never will come to that.
Card 1 of 24 Launch cards .. http://www.vox.com/cards/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know/what-is-the-ukraine-crisis#E5865548
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/6101507/obama-just-committed-the-us-to-war-against-russia-if-it-invades
It's dicey. In these troubled times we are lucky to have a cool, calm, considerate and deliberative
head at the helm of the U.S.A. which, like it or not, is still seen at the head of the Western world.
Growing Pressure on Obama to Do Something Stupid
By Andy Borowitz
Credit Photograph by Pete Souza?/The White House
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Arguing that his motto “Don’t do stupid stuff” is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) led the attack on Thursday, blasting Obama for failing to craft a stupid response to crises in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine.
“Instead of reacting to these events with the haste and recklessness they deserve, the President has chosen to waste valuable time thinking,” McCain said. “This goes against the most fundamental principles of American foreign policy.”
Graham also expressed frustration with the President, telling reporters, “The American people are waiting for President Obama to do something stupid, but their patience is wearing thin.”
In his most withering criticism, McCain called Obama’s “stubborn refusal to do stupid stuff” a failure of leadership. “If I were President, you can bet your bottom dollar I would have done plenty of stupid stuff by now,” he said.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/growing-pressure-obama-something-stupid
h/t DesertDrifter for Andy B's .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=105931536
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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