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Title: War clouds are gathering. A hard rain is soon going to fall.
Source: [None]
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 23, 2016
Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Post Date: 2016-09-23 09:21:52 by tpaine
Keywords: None
Views: 1270
Comments: 26

Townhall.com logo SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

The A Hard Rain is Going to Fall

Victor Davis Hanson 9/22/2016 12:01:00 AM - Victor Davis Hanson

This summer, President Obama was often golfing. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were promising to let the world be. The end of summer seemed sleepy, the world relatively calm.

The summer of 1914 in Europe also seemed quiet. But on July 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip with help from his accomplices, fellow Serbian separatists. That isolated act sparked World War I.

In the summer of 1939, most observers thought Adolf Hitler was finally through with his serial bullying. Appeasement supposedly had satiated his once enormous territorial appetites. But on Sept. 1, Nazi Germany unexpectedly invaded Poland and touched off World War II, which consumed some 60 million lives.

Wars often seem to come out of nowhere, as unlikely events ignite long-simmering disputes into global conflagrations.

The instigators often are weaker attackers who foolishly assume that more powerful nations wish peace at any cost, and so will not react to opportunistic aggression.

Unfortunately, our late-summer calm of 2016 has masked a lot of festering tensions that are now coming to a head -- largely due to disengagement by a supposedly tired United States.

In contrast, war, unlike individual states, does not sleep.

Russia has been massing troops on its border with Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently believes that Europe is in utter disarray and assumes that President Obama remains most interested in apologizing to foreigners for the past evils of the United States. Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine -- or the Baltic states next. Who in hip Amsterdam cares what happens to faraway Kiev?

Iran swapped American hostages for cash. An Iranian missile narrowly missed a U.S. aircraft carrier not long ago. Iranians hijacked an American boat and buzzed our warships in the Persian Gulf. There are frequent promises from Tehran to destroy either Israel, America or both. So much for the peace dividend of the "Iran deal."

North Korea is more than just delusional. Recent nuclear tests and missile launches toward Japan suggest that North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un actually believes that he could win a war -- and thereby gain even larger concessions from the West and from his Asian neighbors.

Radical Islamists likewise seem emboldened to try more attacks on the premise that Western nations will hardly respond with overwhelming power. The past weekend brought pipe bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey as well as a mass stabbing in a Minnesota mall -- and American frustration.

Europe and the United States have been bewildered by huge numbers of largely young male migrants from the war-torn Middle East. Political correctness has paralyzed Western leaders from even articulating the threat, much less replying to it.

Instead, the American government appears more concerned with shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, ensuring that no administration official utters the words "Islamic terror," and issuing warnings to Americans not to lash out due to their supposedly innate prejudices.

Aggressors are also encouraged by vast cutbacks in the U.S. defense budget. The lame-duck Obama presidency, lead-from- behind policies and a culturally and racially divided America reflect voter weariness with overseas commitments.

It would be a mistake to assume that war is impossible because it logically benefits no one, or is outdated in our sophisticated 21st century, or would be insane in a world of nuclear weapons.

Human nature is unchanging and remains irrational. Evil is eternal. Unfortunately, appeasement is often seen by thugs not as magnanimity to be reciprocated but as timidity to be exploited.

Someone soon will have to tell the North Koreans that a stable world order cannot endure its frequent missile launches and nuclear detonations.

Someone could remind Putin that the former Soviet republics have a right to self-determination.

Someone might inform the Chinese that no one can plop down artificial islands and military bases to control commercial sea lanes.

Someone might make it clear to radical Islamic terrorists that there is a limit to Western patience with their chronic bombing, murdering and destruction.

The problem is that there is no other "someone" (especially not the United Nations or the European Union) with the requisite power and authority except the United States. But for a long time America has done more than its fair share of international policing -- and its people are tired of costly dragon-slaying abroad.

The result is that at this late date, the tough medicine of restoring long-term deterrence is as almost as dangerous as the disease of continual short-term appeasement.

Obama apparently assumes he can leave office as a peacemaker before his appeased chickens come home to roost in violent fashion. He has assured us that the world has never been calmer and quieter.

Others said the same thing in the last calm summer weeks of 1914 and 1939.

War clouds are gathering. A hard rain is soon going to fall.

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#1. To: All (#0)

It would be a mistake to assume that war is impossible because it logically benefits no one,-----

A nice little war would greatly benefit those who have lead us to the brink of financial collapse, - correct?

tpaine  posted on  2016-09-23   9:29:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: tpaine (#0)

Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine -- or the Baltic states next.

This is stupid and untrue.

Russia is not going to invade the Baltic States and start World War III - they're part of NATO and they know that.

Nor is Russia going to invade the Ukraine. They don't WANT the Ukraine with all of the troubles that come with it. They got what they needed: the Crimea, so they have their naval base back. They want a stable ally in Kiev, not what is there now. They are not going to back down to a US engineered coup, but they're not going to invade either. What they are going to do is what Reagan did to the Soviets: move some troops around and cause the other side (this time it's us) to hyperventilate and spend money we don't have on a ridiculous overbuild.

The Baltic States are behind the NATO nuclear shield. The Russians are never going there. The Ukraine is a mess, and the Russians aren't going there either. Nor are they going to let the Ukraine stabilize as a pro- Western country. They will maintain the instability there until the West is exhausted, then the Ukrainians will return to a neutral or pro-Russian government, and the Russians will have won the point.

That's all that is happening. All of the rest of the hyperbole is the rantings of a boy who is still playing Risk, with words, and who is a big fan of the military-industrial complex, because tensions mean big contracts and big government money to big arms manufacturers.

He's within that complex, a writer for it, and he believes his own simple- minded rhetoric because it works within his world, and a world favorable to endless expenditure on arms that will never be used.

The time has come to simply ignore people like this. If it were 1939 today, Hitler would have never invaded Poland, because if he did, France and Britain would have nuked Berlin and the Ruhr, and the war would have been over in a day with the vaporization of Germany's government and industrial base.

That's why Putin will never, ever, under any circumstances, invade the Baltic States. It is also why we will never, ever, under any circumstances, invade the Crimea. Nuclear weapons render conventional warfare against the homeland of a nuked-up adversary obsolete.

It's why Japan and Taiwan and South Korea should build their own nuclear weapons.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   9:32:47 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Vicomte13 (#2) (Edited)

Hanson, --- (rants like) a boy who is still playing Risk, with words, and who is a big fan of the military- industrial complex, because tensions mean big contracts and big government money to big arms manufacturers.

He's within that complex, a writer for it, and he believes his own simple- minded rhetoric because it works within his world, and a world favorable to endless expenditure on arms that will never be used.

The time has come to simply ignore people like this.

He writes: -- "Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine -- or the Baltic states next."

This is stupid and untrue.

You're one of the few that infers that Putin is 'wise and truthful'.

tpaine  posted on  2016-09-23   9:47:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: tpaine (#3)

You're one of the few that infers that Putin is 'wise and truthful'.

He doesn't have to be wise and truthful. He just have to not be a suicidal moron. Attack the Baltic States, and you've attacked NATO and are going to end up in a nuclear war with the United States. STALIN didn't dare get into a nuclear war with the USA. Putin is less violent and crazy than Stalin.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   9:55:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Vicomte13 (#4) (Edited)

Attack the Baltic States, and you've attacked NATO and are going to end up in a nuclear war with the United States.

Attack the Baltic States, -- with conventional weapons, and odds are pretty good that NATO and the United States will respond in kind. --- At best.

We could have that 'nice little war', confined to those States, and 'solve' a lot of financial problems

tpaine  posted on  2016-09-23   10:09:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: tpaine (#5)

Attack the Baltic States, -- with conventional weapons, and odds are pretty good that NATO and the United States will respond in kind. --- At best.

We could have that 'nice little war', confined to those States, and 'solve' a lot of financial problems

Nothing like that can happen. The Russians are not going to attack NATO. Wage war and lose, and your government falls. The Soviet Union ultimately failed because they lost in Afghanistan, and their veneer of invincibility was broken. They got a lot of their own people killed and maimed, and they lost. They pulled out in defeat in 1989. And within a year and a half, the USSR was dead - not a mere coincidence.

Leaders who lose wars, lose the confidence of their people. Nixon withdrew from Vietnam - he was driven from office. Ford didn't intervene as Vietnam was overrun, cementing our defeat. He was not re-elected.

Putin is self-interested. Start a war with Europe, and Russia has to win it, or he falls. Russia cannot win a conventional war with the West. The West massively outnumbers them, outguns them, has vastly greater economic resources. Russia would lose the war, and Putin would lose his throne.

Soviet, and Russian, doctrine never made a distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare. Standard Russian doctrine for high-intensity warfare is the integration of nuclear, chemical and biological warfare into front line operations. The Russians CAN defeat NATO if they use NBC weapons, and WILL defeat NATO unless NATO uses them in response.

Any war between Russia and NATO will be a nuclear war. Russian doctrine envisions no less. We're certainly not going to attack Russia, which means that Putin would have to consciously decide to launch a nuclear war against the West.

He's hard and cautious, not crazy. Stalin might have. Putin? Never. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous and a waste of money to even worry about it. Russia attacks NATO, that means Russia goes nuclear. We reply with nukes, and they reply with nukes. World over.

It's not going to happen, and it's silly to think it will. The USSR and the USA managed to avoid nuclear war because Russians and Americans are not crazy. Putin's a lot less evil than Stalin or Breshnev. All of this European War fantasy is cartoon literature written by boys in the West who never grew past playing Risk, and it is cynically manipulated by the military-industrial complex to generate massive unnecessary expenditures on conventional warfare equipment for Europe that will only be used in the last day or two before the world ends.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   11:05:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: tpaine (#1)

"The fire is in the minds of men, not on the roofs of houses"
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky:  The Possessed.

Possessed, repossessed...

 

[Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex” Speech Origins and Significance]
US National Archives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-jvHynP9Y

 

Same ol' Ba'al/bushyte, different municipal toilet.

 

VxH  posted on  2016-09-23   11:05:22 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Vicomte13 (#6)

Someone soon will have to tell the North Koreans that a stable world order cannot endure its frequent missile launches and nuclear detonations.

Someone might inform the Chinese that no one can plop down artificial islands and military bases to control commercial sea lanes.

Someone might make it clear to radical Islamic terrorists that there is a limit to Western patience with their chronic bombing, murdering and destruction.

Are you that someone?

tpaine  posted on  2016-09-23   11:18:42 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: tpaine (#0)

Excellent thread. I predict the war you're talking about will begin about 48 hours from now, in Bosnia.

Barry Midyet

interpreter  posted on  2016-09-23   12:56:19 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: tpaine (#3)

You're one of the few that infers that Putin is 'wise and truthful'.

Everything I've seen of Putin points to him being a very rational mind and very down to earth. He seems to be an excellent leader, and I think the Russians are lucky to have him in charge. In fact, I think Americans are lucky to have him running Russia. If Putin were more like Hillary, WWIII might have already started, and not because Putin is a pushover. Rather it's because Putin understands the consequences of poor foreign policy and Hillary (and Obama) either don't know or don't care what they are.

Putin is tough, but he's a great diplomatic chess player.

Pinguinite  posted on  2016-09-23   13:04:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: Vicomte13 (#6)

The USSR and the USA managed to avoid nuclear war because Russians and Americans are not crazy.

I'm not sure this is still true about the Americans.

Pinguinite  posted on  2016-09-23   13:07:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: tpaine (#5)

Attack the Baltic States, -- with conventional weapons, and odds are pretty good that NATO and the United States will respond in kind.

What for? Does Latvia have gold and diamonds mines? Or good soil for potatoes?

A Pole  posted on  2016-09-23   13:42:20 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: Vicomte13 (#6)

Russians and Americans are not crazy.

Depends which ones. There are some in position of power or close to it, that never saw a war they did not like.

A Pole  posted on  2016-09-23   13:45:56 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: tpaine (#8)

Are you that someone?

No, because China and Islam are LEGITIMATE threats that we DO have to prepared to fight.

Expending energy and treasure preparing to fight war with the Russians in Europe is a waste of hundreds of billions of dollars. Nukes do the trick there, on both sides.

China is a different animal.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   13:47:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: Pinguinite (#11)

I'm not sure this is still true about the Americans.

It is. We puff and preen, but actually go nuclear against Russia? Not happening unless they attack us, which they are never going to do either.

We learned in the Cold War that Russia is the most passive-aggressive major adversary that anybody ever faced. The Russians have no history of launching aggressive wars of conquest in Europe. They have a history of being attacked by the West, absorbing the blow, and then in revenge conquering their would-be conqueror. Had Western powers not attacked Russia, Russia would not have expanded as far West as they did.

Russia is vast, and the Russians have plenty to do developing Russia. But they're in a really crappy neighborhood, with Vikings to the North, Germans to the West, Turks to the South, and Mongols to the East. They've gotten as big as they got because they kept absorbing their erstwhile attackers.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   13:52:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: Vicomte13 (#15)

It is. We puff and preen, but actually go nuclear against Russia? Not happening unless they attack us, which they are never going to do either.

WWI and WWII happened in spite of the fact that no one planned for them to happen. But they happened because of naive policies carried by the key governments involved, as they promoted and advocated interests that went beyond their own borders, much as is happening today, particularly with Syria, and also as the US demonstrated with numerous other countries over the last X years.

Pinguinite  posted on  2016-09-23   14:11:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#17. To: Vicomte13 (#15)

We learned in the Cold War that Russia is the most passive-aggressive major adversary that anybody ever faced. The Russians have no history of launching aggressive wars of conquest in Europe. They have a history of being attacked by the West, absorbing the blow, and then in revenge conquering their would-be conqueror.

Very astute.

I think I have a good insight in American and Russian cultures. They have some similarities but in a key aspect they are the opposites.

America was created by enterprising and restless adventurers who had refined projects and bold dreams to implement.

Russia spontaneously rose out of chaos of Eurasian steppes, from various tribes coming together in search of stability and survival. They were more similar to the Indian tribes than white settlers. What gave them defensive unity was Viking organization and Greek religion.

During peace they were going passive and disorganized. When faced with outside threat they mobilized, hardened and improvoved their org

A Pole  posted on  2016-09-23   14:35:09 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#18. To: Vicomte13 (#15)

We learned in the Cold War that Russia is the most passive-aggressive major adversary that anybody ever faced. The Russians have no history of launching aggressive wars of conquest in Europe. They have a history of being attacked by the West, absorbing the blow, and then in revenge conquering their would-be conqueror.

Very astute.

I think I have a good insight in American and Russian cultures. They have some similarities but in a key aspect they are the opposites.

America was created by enterprising and restless adventurers who had refined projects and bold dreams to implement.

Russia spontaneously rose out of chaos of Eurasian steppes, from various tribes coming together in search of stability and survival. They were more similar to the Indian tribes than white settlers. What gave them defensive unity was Viking organization and Greek religion.

During peace they were going passive and disorganized. When faced with outside threat they mobilized, hardened and improvised their organization.

Very harsh climate, crude standard of living and frequent passages of predatory tribes like Huns, Avars

A Pole  posted on  2016-09-23   14:36:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#19. To: Vicomte13 (#15) (Edited)

We learned in the Cold War that Russia is the most passive-aggressive major adversary that anybody ever faced. The Russians have no history of launching aggressive wars of conquest in Europe. They have a history of being attacked by the West, absorbing the blow, and then in revenge conquering their would-be conqueror.

Very astute.

I think I have a good insight in American and Russian cultures. They have some similarities but in a key aspect they are the opposites.

America was created by enterprising and restless adventurers who had refined projects and bold dreams to implement.

Russia spontaneously and unwittingly coalesced out of chaos of Eurasian steppes, from various tribes coming together in search of stability and survival. They were more similar to the Indian tribes than white settlers. What gave them defensive unity was Viking organization and Greek religion.

During peace they were getting passive and disorganized. When faced with outside threat they mobilized, hardened and improvised/improved their organization.

Very harsh climate, poor soil, crude standard of living and frequent passages of predatory tribes like Huns, Avars etc ... over the millenniums weeded out weak, dumb, selfish and those who are not flexible, patient and resilient.

They are reactive, not proactive, they have long memory, they are quick to forgive but never to forget their lessons.

A Pole  posted on  2016-09-23   14:55:00 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: Pinguinite (#16) (Edited)

WWI and WWII happened in spite of the fact that no one planned for them to happen.

The consequences were lower.

Also, to be clear, World War I and World War II were started by imperialistic Western Europeans - Germans, to be very specific, seconded by English and French - aggressive imperial states. In World War I, Russia jumped in because they were also an aggressive imperial autocracy, but after they had their revolution and became a republic, the Russians settled into the passive-aggressivity that historically has characterized Russia.

America, for its part, has always been slow to really go to war with anybody important.

If France, Britain, Italy or Germany had had nukes, they surely would have used them on each other liberally - arrogant little cultures of arrogant little countries.

But Russia and America are not little countries, and they don't have particularly arrogant cultures. They're proud, but really insular, both of them. They've vast and inward-looking (or self-regarding), for the most part.

Beyond that, Russia and America have massive nuclear arsenals, and a seventy year history of Cold War standoff in which we never fire on each other, because Americans and Russians are not stupid, neither of them, and not hotheads, neither one of them. The Russians are scientific rationalists with a soulful mystic nature. Americans are social people with a breezier nature and a real taste for money, industry, and capitalism. The two cultures are not all that much alike, but both are MUCH more cautious when it comes to pulling the trigger on major war than any of the little Western countries ever were.

We had a Cold War staredown with the Soviet Union for 50 years, and both sides knew it was the end of the world if we went to war. So we didn't. Russians and Americans are smarter than Germans, Italians, British and French. We will not commit suicide over matters of pride. Oh, American SOUTHERNERS would, to be sure, but they are the minority.

When it was Stalin and Truman, we didn't pull the trigger. When it was Breshnev and the weak Carter, the Soviets didn't pull the trigger. We all know, on both sides, that it would be sheer madness, the loss of everything. Russians are not suicidal, and neither are Americans.

Russia today ain't the USSR. It isn't as closed, as unfree, as aggressive, as strong. And Putin certainly is no Stalin or Breshnev. He's not a Gorbachev either, and he's not a drunk like Boris Yeltsin.

He's a cool customer, former KGB and proud of it. He's not suicidal, and he doesn't make crazy, fiery speeches the way somebody hellbent on blowing up the world would. Hell, Stalin didn't either. Even Stalin was careful, cautious. That's the Russian (or Soviet) nature.

So, with that in mind, Russia and the US are not a powerderkeg ready to blow. There's no secret alliance system, no Alsace-Lorraine. There's no hyperinflation-ravaged people in either country ready to blame the other. Neither Russia nor America needs "lebensraum".

Neither has anything to gain by losing the top 100 of their major cities. It would be insane. And Americans and Russians are not insane people. The only two peoples who ever spontaneously made a space program out of wholecloth, with nothing to copy, were the Russians (first), followed by the Americans. Russians and Americans are SCIENTIFIC people, not crazies.

There will be no war between them. Not ever. There will be warmer or cooler relations, based on events, but Americans and Russians know the stakes, both sides are rational scientific actors. There is no REAL danger of a war "suddenly breaking out". Russia is not Germany. Russia is, rather, a country that suffered at the hands of crazy Germany - and a country that, in response, took steps to crush Germany down so far, and build up such a tower of nuclear weapons, that nobody can ever do that to Russia again. Not ever. Americans, likewise, have a nuclear arsenal so huge nobody can invade us either.

The US COULD end up in a shooting war with China - even a nuclear war - unlikely but possible. The Chinese have done crazy things, and fought Americans face-to-face in Korea. But Russia? Never going to happen. Not ever.

We have to maintain some sort of token force, for stability of expectations, but we do not need a massive military buildup in Europe to prepare for an impossible conventional war. The Russians don't have the economy for that either.

So let's stop with the posturing and do what is best for both of us - STOP pushing NATO forces up to Russia's borders. Deconflict. Stop the Ukraine War that we precipitated by overthrowing the government of the Ukraine. Stop antagonizing the Russians, and they will stop antagonizing us. It's that simple, really. Putin was not a difficult person to deal with a few years ago. We CHOSE to treat Russia badly, and we've reaped what we've sown.

We're not as strong as we used to be, because our economy is weaker. Instead of throwing good money after bad, we need a rethink.

Russians and Americans need each other to deal with Islamic radicalism - a REAL threat. We need each other, to cooperate in making a better space agency and space science than either can afford alone. And we need to have a reasonable strategy to talk the Chinese off the crazy ledge regarding the China Seas.

Tensions in Europe benefit nobody but American defense contractors - which is why we are doing this, but we need to stop it.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   15:16:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#21. To: Vicomte13 (#20)

We will not commit suicide over matters of pride. Oh, American SOUTHERNERS would, to be sure, but they are the minority.

John McCain roots - Virginia, Carolina, Mississippi etc ...

A Pole  posted on  2016-09-23   15:30:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#22. To: A Pole (#21)

John McCain roots - Virginia, Carolina, Mississippi etc ...

Bellicose folks with a particular regional culture that is loud but not dominant.

The business of America is business. And war is bad for business.*

*Except the defense industry, which pushes a more aggressive stance in the world than is sensible for the US.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-23   15:36:29 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#23. To: Vicomte13 (#20)

You make a lot of points, and I hope you're right. However, while it took a lot of bureaucracy to go to conventional war with WWI & II, starting a Nuke war only takes about a half dozen key placed people. We can say neither the Americans or Russians are crazy and that's fine as a generality, but not all Americans or Russians are sane/rational.

I half expect a Russian S-300/400 missile system to take down a US combat jet over Syria within the next 12 months (unless Trump is elected). If so, we'll see how that goes.

Pinguinite  posted on  2016-09-23   16:37:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#24. To: tpaine (#0) (Edited)

War clouds are gathering. A hard rain is soon going to fall.

It's not just going to be a hard rain but a black rain as well. I saw this in my dream several years back. One minute I am in this city and there are multitudes of people from all ethnics. The next I see the sky turn to complete blackness and as the hard rains fall, something or someone is speaking through me saying, "And it will be the blackest rain as ever. Blackest rain as ever. Woe to the inhabitants of earth." As the rains come harder and turn into hail, people are running and screaming for their lives. I remember waking up from this dream just in awe and speechless.

goldilucky  posted on  2016-09-23   17:19:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#25. To: Vicomte13 (#20)

I think Putin is a rational man, unlike Obama, Clinton and even the boys from the GW war machine. The US has something like 1,200+ military bases around the world, and we worry about how crazy Russia is. My God, OUR leaders are the insane ones. They have brought us one war after another for a hundred years. It has come down to the fact that it costs America close to a million dollars per enemy killed, while our enemy kills us for $2.00. How long can we sustain this? How long will our B-52's remain in service? The bigger they are, the harder they fall. We are going to make a large thud very soon, and it won't be Putin or China that does it. It will simply be a tired ship of state running aground and tearing the hull out of this old boat.

Exercising rights is only radical to two people, Tyrants and Slaves. Which are YOU? Our ignorance has driven us into slavery and we do not recognize it.

jeremiad  posted on  2016-09-27   1:56:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#26. To: jeremiad (#25)

I think Putin is a rational man, unlike Obama, Clinton and even the boys from the GW war machine. The US has something like 1,200+ military bases around the world, and we worry about how crazy Russia is. My God, OUR leaders are the insane ones. They have brought us one war after another for a hundred years. It has come down to the fact that it costs America close to a million dollars per enemy killed, while our enemy kills us for $2.00. How long can we sustain this? How long will our B-52's remain in service? The bigger they are, the harder they fall. We are going to make a large thud very soon, and it won't be Putin or China that does it. It will simply be a tired ship of state running aground and tearing the hull out of this old boat.

I agree with all of that.

Vicomte13  posted on  2016-09-27   8:17:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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