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As Crimea votes, hindsight has given us a clue to opportunities lost with Ukraine.
We should have already air dropped 30,000 troops into Ukraine near the Crimean border. Their duty would not be to change any of the outcome resulting from Crimea returning to Russia. Their responsibility would be to protect the rest of Ukraine from subsequent invasion by Russia, and send a signal that we are seriously invested in solving this crises peacefully… We put skin in the game.
We tend to think the Russians are not smart. That belief is our own ignorance dictating to us what we want to hear. Actually Russians are an amazing group of people, very similar in mental prowess to us here in the US. They understand pragmatics when someone calls their bluff.
It is important here that our actions demonstrate and back up what we are saying. Our words are no longer believed, and it is with good reason… If one thing the scandals of the US have shown lately, it is that our nation’s government is isolated from its moral authority, and lives in a bubble that truly exists within the confines of the Washington DC Beltway. The particularly tragic fallout from the NSA spying operation is that anything we as a government now have to say to the world community, cannot be believed anymore…
Also a very serious opportunity exists here for the Chinese to absorb some of the world policeman’s cost, and we should take every advantage of their weakness at home, to entice them to bolster their support at home by joining us as a peace keeper in the Ukraine, and positioning themselves with us along the northwest side of the Dnieper River
If Russia wants to crush our troops, it will with catastrophic cost. As for worries over flash-points, one must remember that Europe survived 50 years with no war, even though both sides trained 24/7 to initiate hostilities at a second’s notice. There is little reason to believe the Russians desire to commit suicide and fight a ground war on two fronts each on a different continent…
When you play a game of basketball, you don’t say… “you’d better not try that layup, because if you do, I’m going to shoot a 3 pointer.” No. You shoot the 3 pointer and that does your talking for you….
The world is looking at the US and wondering to themselves what are we going to do? Just let Russia take over?
We only have two choices. The best one is immediate containment. Think how would history have been different if we’d airlifted 30,000 of our troops into Kuwait as Saddam began to line his tanks along the border?
This, I’m afraid, is our Berlin moment, which back then due to our gutsy move, signaled the end of Russia’s aggressive posturing in Europe… The alternative, is Munich; because once you give into force, it is only a matter of time after a truce on false promises, till force gets tried again….
Hopefully others looked at this and we’ve already begun… I apologize for it not hitting me sooner.
Delaware has 3 C’s. Carney, Coons, and Carper all representing us in our national assembly, Congress. As the vote for Syria gets put on hold, it becomes time for Delawareans to call up their three Congressional representatives and give them insight into what their constituents are feeling.
Simpler for all, is their email form at each representatives website, easily searched by your favorite search engine. In cases like these, especially war and death, your opinions matter. Each Representative has a dual obligation… One, they must do what is best for the America they serve. Two, they must do what is best for their constituents back home who elected them.
Occasionally the official line of the American Government is at odds with the feeling of the constituents back home. In the old days of kings one could only complain. With the American form of democracy, one can take action.. Our Congress as would any person, only hearing only facts from one side, only hearing only opinions from one side, only hearing emotions from one side, … would have a hard time going against the only side that one hears.
Today, every congressperson who has not committed, is being lobbied hard to sign up for war by the Administration. Phone calls, personal visits, complete with all the trappings required to sway a vote, are being sharply applied to our three people to insure they follow the wishes of the government over those of their constituents back home.
Unless you call and express YOUR view, they will win. It’s is inevitable.
However since YOU actually cast the vote that has given (and in the future will allow them to continue what may be called) one of the best jobs in the world,…. what “you” think… matters more then what ten employees of the Administration think… Really! For sure! Look within yourself! Do you care what a coworker thinks, over what your boss thinks? I hope not; if so your priorities are in the wrong place. it follows suit with them too.
We are talking about going to war. If you don’t call on this, really… why are you even an American?
YOU have an obligation to make a call on this issue and tell them why you think, the way you do…. Every call is important, either way, in helping our Congressional delegation align themselves with their constituents.
Remember, email on their websites is better, but if calling is easier for you, here are their numbers…
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Senator Tom Carper (D- DE) iPhone: 202-224-2441 Fax: 202-228-2190
http://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-senator-carper
Senator Christopher Coons (D- DE) iPhone: 202-224-5042 Fax: 202-228-3075
http://www.coons.senate.gov/contact/
Representative John Carney (D – Delaware At Large) iPhone: 202-225-4165 Fax: 202-225-2291
https://forms.house.gov/carney/webforms/email-me.shtml
And before I leave, let me explain the Fourth “C” in my title… The fourth “c” stands for “credibility”… Without you, our congressional delegates have no credibility. You are the fourth “C” representing us in Congress… If you ever get mad at your delegate for voting against the way you think he should, BUT YOU DID NOTHING TO LET HIM KNOW WHAT HE SHOULD OF DONE, well, dude, it’s on you!
If one constantly hears that only one path to take is good, and never hears the other side’s opinion…. how can anyone expect them not to vote for what they think is best?
On the other hand, If you called and they voted wrong… sure, you are allowed to be angry! But if you did nothing. nothing! nothing? Then it is all on you! What were you thinking?
Currently all three C’s are leaning towards bombing Syria. Most Delawareans are against it at by least 80-20. Everyone of those 20’s will be calling in to demand more war… You can’t speak for all of the 80% not calling in, but you can and must, speak for you…
If you don’t, you let America and Delaware down. You are the fourth “C”… You are the credibility that gives the other 3 C’s the right to serve us in the halls of Congress.
Let us start here. A good leader takes his people where they want to go. A good leader does not force his people to go where they definitely don’t want to go… That is ruling. Not leading.
A good leader convinces his people why they must do something. He makes sure he puts in how it will benefit them. If it doesn’t benefit them, he is ruling. Not leading.
A good leader creates good out of evil. There is a moral equivalency to leadership. It can be defined shallowly at times. Such as calling Hitler good leader based on his strategy of conquering France. But time makes such affirmations short lived. I don’t think anyone looking over the rubble left of Germany in 1945 at that moment considered Hitler a good leader after viewing his legacy.
A good leader does not follow the rules… He decides when and where the rules apply. Some would apply the name “great leader” to one who never wavered. Well, such a leader would have ruined the life of a little boy whose grandmother sent along a knife to cut the cake, not knowing that knives in school were grounds for expulsion. A lot of misdirected people in leadership positions in that particular school district, made bad decisions based on their mistaken view of what makes a good leader. A good leader does not always follow the rules.
A good leader decides when and where the rules apply.
In Syria we have controversy. We have one argument stating that Syria must be punished. We have the other that says War must be reserved only for something Huge. That “Huge” is of course undefined and fits in with “we know it when we see it.”
As the executive of the world’s largest force, militarily, economically, and morally, our president pretty much get to decide.
Here is what a great leader would do. He would find a way to unite the two sides into one… He would find a way to punish Assad of Syria in a way that would scare any other despot thinking of using chemical weapons, and do it without going to war.
That would be great leadership.
So what would scare Assad the most? It’s hard to tell, but my guess is that his biggest fear as a man, is if his palace is overrun by Syrians, who basically tear him apart, and do his wife and children, then systematically erase any acknowledgement that he or his dad ever existed… That whole reign of terror becomes ridiculed, laughed at, for the rest of History. i would guess that is how you could get to Assad.
So, we, (not just the US but the rest of the world) have to make that threat real.. We don’t have to carry it out necessarily, but we have to make it real. How can that happen?
I think first, is that we make crossing the border out of Syria a real good move for Syrians… Send the signal, that if you leave Syria, the world community will settle you somewhere, give you a job, and a chance to begin a life of freedom and prosperity. ideally what we are doing is a Cold War. Over time we are saying: “See how great the Rest of the world lives? Oh, you poor Syrians… Escape and come join us”. Where could we relocate them? Iran could step up, Jordan,, and Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States,
This is how your hurt Assad… Turn his own people against him… No ruler can rule a group of people who don’t want to be ruled. He can use brutality to a certain extent, but the numbers are completely on the side of the population wanting him gone. With our intelligence capacity, he will never be safe… Every bodyguard is a potential killer..
And that, more or less, is what we should do… It is what a great leader does… He solves problems in ways where the evil get punished and the good win out.
Going to war, rewards those doing evil, and hurts the good….
It is time our President, become the great leader. Not by digging down and reinforcing the costly methods promoted in the past.. But to devise and implement new methods which because of their success, will be utilized far into the future….
Senator Coons just returned this week from the Middle East. Lindsay Graham, Kelly Ayotte, John McCain, Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal went as well.
Jordan and Turkey have welcomed Syrian refugees with open arms. The camp visited, Zaatari, is at a population of 42,000 and absorbing 2000 a night. They need help before their scarce resources cause tensions within their own country.
This affects the US… Aid is in the United States’ interest. If we can provide aid to the rebels on the ground inside Syria we are preventing a much greater future cost of a full blown jihadist regime sharing a border with Israel….
Currently the aid we actually are providing is going through NGO’s into Damascus, where the Syrian government is distributing it to their supporters and away from the rebel towns who are hardest hit. The American people believe this aid is reaching the population they see on their televisions. Sad thing it isn’t.
The Assad administration is” dug in pretty hard.”
It is clear that air power is needed to protect people from Syria. A no-fly zone would even the odds. Currently the jihadists can stir up unrest. The war gives jihadist opportunity, The jihadists are the better fighters. When you as a people are being tortured and killed, the people fighting alongside of you gain legitimacy. Extremism always thrives inside anarchy. Any money now spent to facilitate the end of Assad is cheaper than what we will be grappling with jihadists at a later date.
It is time to give the Syrian Opposition Council more legitimacy, by recognizing it’s rightful representation of the Syrian people
The window is closing for the US… Either we act now, or get caught inside another Mid East bubble just as it explodes….
Here is how we move forward.
A) Step up Aid to Syrian People
B) Send aid to Turkey and Jordan and direct to refugee camps.
C) Apply to Assad to US to accompany aid into Syria and to those opposition towns inside.
D) When he refuses, enable a No-fly zoned over the Rebel held zones to enable OUR AMERICAN aid to get through.
E) Step up diplomatic pressure on Assad and his supporters to step down…..
F) Invite China to be part of the peace process and send humanitarian troops and infrastructural aid…..
Israel is going forward with 1200 new settlements on the West Bank.
Expect the truce to end tomorrow afternoon as rockets arch the skies.
Once again, Israel takes advantage of what it believes is the US’s inability to think for itself.
Our proper response, is to demand they stand down. When Israel says no, tell them our support for their country depends on no new settlements. If they go ahead, they do it alone; tell them as of now we begin our withdrawal in one week…. We stop when we hear they have voted to stop all new settlements.
This is not about friendship; we will always have a love for Israel. It is about business. Every insurance company has the right to decide whether to insure an at-risk beach property, or not. The United States of America is Israel’s insurer of their right to exist. Israel’s actions have simply made it too costly to continue our relationship….
It is not our choice if Israel goes forward with settlements. They get to choose their future. Our only duty is to precisely define the options so they completely understand all consequences….. That precisely worded statement, is that if they do so, they do it without any of our help or aid.
Courtesy of Office of Management and Budget.
The fiscal cliff. We are arguing over more revenue. We are arguing over tax hikes. We are arguing over the age of Social Security and Medicare commencement. We are arguing over defense. We are arguing over education. We are arguing over discretionary cuts….
When in truth, we should be taking the all of the above approach considering the problem….
This is our generation’s WWII… We are in for the fight of our life, and we have to get this right. There is no room for error….
If one takes this analogy between our economy and WWII further, one could say we are in the pre-years of WWII now, the late 30’s. We are making small amendments to our armed services, buying a few planes here and there, and as the crises worsens, we send some of our stuff overseas.
But it takes the loss of our fleet in Pearl Harbor, to WAKE US UP!…. In a matter of days, the entire Pacific was under Japanese control. All of European civilization but for Britain, was under Nazi Germany’s control…. Just like that…
Had we had our battleships in war mode, Pearl Harbor never would have happened. Had we rushed to France’s aid, probably WWII would have stalemated, and who knows what kind of world we would have today….
Bottom line, is that we need to do all of the above right now… Republicans need to give in on taxes, Democrats need to give in on entitlements. Corporations need to start re-investing now, ahead of the curve. The wealthy, need to pay up a lot more. Everyone needs to chip in….
What we don’t need are arguments because “my side” doesn’t feel like it is treated fairly unless “your side” gives up something…
Just everybody give up everything… You going to later, if you don’t do it now, so, … let’s fix it now…. while the price is still low…..
Right Click for Full Image.
Issa’s hearing just got the lowdown on what happen that night Stevens died.
It is a very gripping tale of what went down. They were attacked. There was no warning. It was a 9/11 surprise that took everyone by surprise.
From the account of the attack, everything went according to plan. There were no glitches. There were no acts of cowardice. There were no mistakes made. Adequate and proper procedures were in place especially knowing the anniversary of 9/11 was intact. I was most impressed how the counsel of Turkey was walked out to the front gate by Stevens and they noticed the calmness of the city in the desert night. One hour later, Stevens would be dead.
Blaming the State Department for this incident is similar to blaming Rudy Giuliani for the 9/11 attack on New York, his city. It is stupid, arrogant, idiotic, and could only come from a Republican thug like Issa. He deserves to be deported.
There is something horribly sick in this Republican’s brain. Imagine blaming Giuliani for the loss of the twin towers. This Republican thug Issa deserves punched in the face, a thousand times. This Republican thug deserves to be outcast from the country he stole all his money from. America is too good for this thug Issa.
These guys who died were heroes. Stevens is a hero. Not some scum like Issa implies, who deserved to die for his cowardice. Just like if Giuliani had been a Democrat, this same thug Issa would have probably said it is a damn shame Rudy Giuliani didn’t die to rid ourselves of his disgusting caricature.
If someone had brought up that Giuliani was a hero, thug Issa would have dismissed that as poppycock. “He’s only acting that way to disguise his role in the tower’s collapse. He’s the mayor, he needs to die.”
Issa represents the soul of the Republican party at its darkest. That soul in hell would have no shame standing next to souls from parties such as the Nazis. Brown Shirts, or Red Communists, or the Spanish Inquisition. They would all be compatriots. Issa is simply in it for Issa. He is replaying Joe McCarthy’s role,… not of cleaning out communists from America, but making Joe McCarthy famous and important, and a household word. Issa is disgusting.
This attack and the real drama that ensued makes the State Department’s actions commendable. In offense and defense, truth is not a player. Obfuscation and distraction and fooling the other side, are as rightfully at home here, as they are on a football field. If the State department had announced the truth of the matter on the day Romney stepped forth and castigated in an embarrassing example of how he would lead in foreign affairs, then every Arab would see that every Embassy, every consulate was undermanned and an easy target.
All it took was forty men. You think you can’t find 40 disgruntled men in every country in which we have diplomatic relations? Hell, you can find 40 disgruntled men in Issa’s own district. Is he suggesting he now needs a bodyguard of 100 soldiers to now protect him?
The level of security to prevent this kind of surprise attack is unprecedented. In all honesty, we probably had sufficient security to repel such an attack in Baghdad. Other than that, every embassy, every consulate across the world was vulnerable to similar attacks.
It makes obvious sense that to protect American lives across this planet, especially those in areas where 40 disgruntled men having access to RPG’s can easily be found, one would not give out details that showed how easily every embassy, every consulate could now be attacked.
Obama should be commended. His state department acted very professionally in this crises. One can assume now that this has become public knowledge, sufficient security at a very large expense, including A10’s are now stationed to be at any hotspot within 5 minutes.
If you are going to castigate the Commander in Chief for Libya, you had better throw Rudy Giuliani in jail right now too. This Republican sham is easily seen. Republicans are the true enemy of Mohamed. Not the America Public.
Issa should be zip stripped and gagged, and kicked out of a car in Freedom Square in Cairo, with a sign, Ugly American, pinned to his back.
I’m joking, but they are not. It is time all Republican scum be humiliated, and exposed for the ugly frauds they are in public. Romney, Ryan, Issa, Boulton, Dan Senor, Cofer Black, Christopher Burnham, Michael Chertoff, Eliot Cohen, Norm Coleman, John Danilovich, Paula J. Dobriansky, Eric Edelman, Michael Hayden, Kerry Healey, Kim Holmes, Robert Joseph, Robert Kagan, John Lehman, Andrew Natsios, Meghan O’Sullivan, Walid Phares, Pierre Prosper, Mitchell Reiss, Jim Talent, Vin Weber, Richard Williamson, Dov Zakheim.
Romney/Ryan excluded, these people are the ones responsible for $1.5 trillion dollars of the national debt categorized under Iraq and Afghanistan. $1.5 trillion that future generations of American children will have to pay, out of which we simply got nothing, nothing at all. Not respect, not financial gain, not even a simple “thank you.” We’ve have exited Iraq, (Romney says we need to go back in) We are exiting Afghanistan in 2014 (Romney says we need to stay there indefinitely)
This new truth that came to light, really shows that President Obama was willing to take political heat just before an election which he could still lose, in order that American lives could be protected and made safe, before the truth came out. An America that can still elect a thug like Republican Issa, really doesn’t deserve as great of a self-sacrificing man as we currently have as Commander in Chief of the United States of America, a man who would put American lives above his own career. This nation is truly blessed to count such a man among its citizens.
kavips 