Speaking at the nuclear security summit today, President Obama loudly mocked Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, insisting it was proof that Russia is a weak regional power rapidly falling into obscurity.
Obama went on to insist that Russia’s military posed no real threat to anyone beyond its immediate neighbors, and certainly didn’t amount to a national security issue for the US.
“I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan,” insisted Obama. He went on to suggest that Russia wouldn’t dare move farther than Crimea.
Obama argued Russia has had “enormous influence” over Ukraine’s operation for decades, and the loss of control of Ukraine (in violent protests) led them to desperation in trying to militarily retain Crimea. His argument seems to be the fact that pro-US protesters managed to seize power so easily in Ukraine in the first place, ousting the elected government and touting its replacement regime as “democratic” without any election, proved that Russia is too weak to stop such moves even along their own border.
Yada, yada, yada.
Obama is just blowing hot air.
If he truly believed this dreck, they would've went to war with Russia to take back Crimea. Period. If it had been Syria, Iraq or a truly weak power, they most certainly would've.
I doubt anyone in the room bought his posturing.
The REASON he didn't go to war for Crimea is because he KNOWS and doesn't want to admit that the US is essentially powerless when it comes to bullying Russia. Just the mere fact that he had to sit there and bloviate about '"American power and Russian weakness" speaks volumes. Nations who are truly all-powerful don't have to brag about it.
But talk is cheap….and Russia is one country that the US won't be "walking the walk" with when it comes to war.
Period.
Makes one lose what little respect I had for this man (OBAMA)
Now his mouth is getting ahead of his brain.
Watch out America
PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL.
It's interesting …seems to me that since his re-election win, he's been coasting…more like given up, perhaps. It looks like he's realized that he's not getting anything else from CONgress and he's tired of fighting them.
Regarding his speech(es), the tone and tenor has changed – like he isn't writing them anymore and the person putting words in his mouth has a different agenda. And sadly, Obama doesn't care anymore.
Like you, what little respect I had for him (he is a pol after all) is gone. Like Dubya, Obama just doesn't care. The difference is that Dubya didn't care from the beginning…Obama threw in the towel well into his Administration.
This man is delusional and therefore dangerous, with a messianic sense of purpose.
Sadly, I'm starting to agree. The last year has been scary in terms of the bad decisions and the total disconnect to reality. Hitler is over-used propaganda, but this is starting to feel like Hitler near the end of the war moving divisions that didn't exist around on out-of-date maps.
If he mis-estimates Russia's power by the levels he seems to in this ridiculous speech, then the chances of a major mistake exist. And since its the US and their Ukranian right-wing allies that are continuously escalating the conflict, when one starts to feel that Obama and Kerry have no clue as to the real situation, then one has to be very afraid of a miscalculation.
Like Napoleon and Hitler, he seems to think the Russians would be easy to defeat. Anyone who knows history knows that the Russians are almost never easy to beat. Of course, I live in a country that didn't have a clue that Afghanistan might fight for decades to drive out foreign invaders. <sigh>
Yeah, the real danger isn't that Obama is uttering cynical rhetoric that neither he nor any of his listeners believe. The real danger is that he (or certain influential players in his adminsitration) actually believe this dreck and are constructing strategies around it. In this instance, the influence of an inveterate Russo-phobe like Brzezinski should not be forgotten or minimized. Brzezinski and his acolytes will be satisifed with nothing less than the breakup of the Russian Federation itself. If they actually view what Russia did in Crimea as a gesture of 'weakness' (when the opposite is true), then homo sapiens is doomed to a thermonuclear death.
Reminds me in a way of Bush 2.
Obama's comments, ridiculous as they are, were directed more towards
the Right-wing chicken hawks in the US Congress peanut gallery, than
the Russian people.
Opinion polls suggest that (sensible) Americans don't take seriously
the drivel from losers like McCain and Kristol, who (talk) about
military action against Russia.
Russia is (not) a (weak) country. It's a vast country sitting upon
tremendous natural resources which the EU depends greatly on.
Resources the EU has become more dependent on as the result from
US blunders in Iraq, Libya, and Iran.
One of the dangers of kicking a man when he’s down is that he just might get up again.
Russia was on its knees in the early 1990’s. Russia could have been a friend if our elites were smarter than they are. Instead, Russians were tricked into disbanding the Warsaw Pact with empty promises that NATO would not exploit the situation by expanding that hostile military alliance eastward. Of course, it was a lie and Russia today finds itself virtually surrounded by that aggressive and expansionist alliance which is now on its doorstep.
Russia has been repeatedly invaded in the past through eastern Europe (Napoleon in 1812 and Germany in 1941 come readily to mind) and quite understandably Russia is wary of hostile military activities near its Western borders. It’s quite possible that Moscow’s protracted presence in Europe following WWII (not to overlook the US presence which remains to this day) might well have been at least partly motivated by a desire to create a protective buffer zone between itself and the rest of Europe.
Putin is is very popular in Russia today because he has gotten Russia up off its knees and is putting an end to its humiliation. That suggests that now might be a very good time to stop kicking Russia.
Obama’s triumphalist rhetoric is stupid and provocative and no good can possibly come from it.
When US soldiers get in a real fight things don't go so well. In Iraq there were times they were cut up badly by Iraq Republican Guards in the Bush 2 invasion, remember Black Hawk Down,, remember the recent Seal attack on the coast of Somalia. If Obama has no respect for very tough Russian soldiers, and runs his mouth as he has, Putin may just decide to answer Barry"s claim.
Every time he opens his mouth, every hand gesture and every facial expression exposes him for what he truly is: a marionette controlled by the U.S. military industry, the global bankers and foreign State influence. Obama is a stooge, a flunky, a pawn and a charlatan. He is incapable of leadership and only parrots the words of others written for him on his teleprompter.
How ironic the first black President of the United States is not his own man but instead serves in bondage to others. He lives on the plantation of socialist hokum, a modern day slave whose legacy will be remembered as such.
Obama… What a dick.
DC is filled with lunatics who won't be able to orgasm until the ICBMs fly.
We need to overthrow this government for the sake of humanity.
The greatest American contribution to culture — trash-talking — has now become the language of diplomacy. But aside from the imbeciles of the great sea of the American boobeoisie, no one is buying Obama's claim of "pwning" Putin.
Trash-talking: The last line of defense for the blowhard.
“I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan,” insisted Obama. He went on to suggest that Russia wouldn’t dare move farther than Crimea.
This is not a hot air talk, this is threat to the world that USG-EU is ready to start the Third World War if it comes to that.
What he is saying is that, it the USA that has be the world power in all front or els. What he is saying is that: USG will use everything and every kind of hooligans, fascism, street gangs, barbarians, state department mercenaries and etc to achieve and keep its idea in world economic domination, he sees Russia, China, South America, India, Africa and in general nations that are to become partners in economic corporation for social progressive agendas as the enemy of his and US corporations. So be ready “loyal democrats” if you want to keep your car shiny you need to vote for Hillary Clinton to start more wars then you ever imagine.
Excellent strategy. Putin is driven by vanity and pinprick humiliations are far and away the best way of dealing with such people. Two things have to happen: either Putin does something really stupid that justifies clobbering him good and proper or he does nothing, and is then discredited in front of his own people, particularly the over 60s, like himself, who are his basic support. The more he is likely to do something stupid, the more reason his oligarch pals will have to force him out of office.
NATO is the greatest force for good in this world. Just look at what they have done to help the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. To all those who say that NATO should be disbanded – you are all wrong. If anything – NATO should be enlarged. As great as NATO is, even they can't work out miracles. After all, there are only 29 NATO members, and I'm sure that if there were 58 they would have worked up the courage to attack Russia much more easily and thus prevent the unnecessary suffering of the Crimeans. I mean who can forget those traumatizing images of Crimeans marched to the polling stations with guns pointed at their heads in order to get the desired results?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA LMFAO "unnecessary suffering of the Crimeans" HAHAHAHA "guns pointed at their heads" Oh, good one
Actually what it 'proves' is that the US wasn't funding terrorists against an especially repressive or effective regime this time. When the gov't of their target is apt to respond harshly, or even just effectively, that's what they'll b–ch about. And that's genuine anger: just like when mom padlocks the cooky jar…or saps and impurifies your precious bodily fluids.
Projectionism.
US President Barack WW3 presses the Launch Nukes button…..what was that about the other guy being worse?
While not knowing the full context of these comments, I would say that they are both revealing of the America's OWN agenda, at least as implemented by the Administration, and embarrassing of Presidential dignity (his own) for Obama to speak like that. This type of spin makes him look cheap and not much more than a nasty con man. Some have offered that this type of trash talk is done to appease the neocons and allow Obama to proceed with other agendas which the neocons oppose. Maybe that is true, though it is inconsistent with our $5 billlion investment to overthrow Yanukovich, and the putsch that we made happen. This is not Obama's finest hour, and with all the opportunities to have many, he has had very few at all. (I compare it also with the Clinton con and Clinton's breaking of Bush's promise to Gorbachev not to expand NATO with former Warsaw Pact countries.)
Frankly, right now Putin and Lavrov have made the most sense. They have been grounded, pragmatic, careful to remain on a track for a peaceful coexistence, and, ironically, more respectful of human rights and democratic values.
I believe Obama to be a psychopathic Sociopath and a coward to boot. I think he has lost his mind and needs to be impeached or incarcerated in a mental hospital before he ignites WW 3. From his comments it would appear that he personally fears Putin ad will throw the world into Armageddon if allowed to continue as hiring terrorists to start wars in several nations sans congressional permission. Perhaps a few years in a mental hospital would help?