God, But Our Leaders Are Useless

[poliphilo]

Of course Putin sent his troops into the Crimea. It's where he keeps his navy. Also it has a Russian speaking population that wants protecting from the fascists who have just seized power in the western part of their badly stitched together country.  The Western leaders aren't really shocked at any of this and it's hypocritical of them to pretend they are.  It should be possible-and it would be if they weren't such babies- for them to sit down with Putin and talk things through to a mutually satisfactory conclusion. Did they enjoy the Cold War so very much that they want to bring it back?

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

In a way i do hope our leaders are brave enough to talk to Putin, and have dialogue with him. What have they to fear? Russia is a different country to what it was under communism. The fascists in Ukraine have an illegitimate claim o remain in power. It is a case of ineptitude that nothing concrete has been done.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's time we stopped treating Russia as though it were still the Soviet Union.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Do you think the western Ukrainians are fascists? Do you think this is different from what has happened in Egypt, for example? Things are complex in Ukraine; most people seem to have both Ukrainian and Russian ancestry. I'm wondering if there is a single country on this planet that doesn't have a complicated ethnic situation.

Also I'm not entirely sure that Putin wants to "talk things through" wih Western leaders. Russia is not being threatened here, just Russian hegemony of its neighbouring "independent" states. Russia is the aggressor in terms of military activity over the last couple of days. See how long it will be before Putin turns the Ukraine's gas supply off again.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, my piece was deliberately broad brush. Of course the situation is complex- as is the situation on Egypt or Syria or any of the world's current hot spots. Russia has legitimate interests in the Crimea and the west none at- and we ought to butt out. Our leaders have a propensity to go charging into situations they don't fully understand- and making things worse.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I have heard from my network that the "unrest" in Crimea is largely hyped up by Putin to give himself an excuse to invade.

I'm wondering if Putin is having some kind of erectile dysfunction or something. It seems like he is AWFULLY preoccupied with proving his manhood lately.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's interesting.

Word is he got married in secret around the time of the Olympics.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

That would be good.... calm that man down a bit!

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

>> Of course Putin sent his troops into the Crimea. It's where he keeps his navy.

Exactly my thoughts. Russia will never give up that region. As for what Western leaders might do . . . I can tell you that Obama will do nothing. Some words here and there, perhaps. But as Iran has proved time and again, one can essentially ignore the US and UN and just keep on doing what one is doing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Apart from huffing and puffing and imposing economic sanctions there's nothing the West can do- unless it's prepared to launch WWIII.

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

Putin is an obvious egomaniac, and has the insecurities of one. He is not going to let go control of any important resources that once belonged to the Soviet Union.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

An extremely unpleasant man- but an improvement on Stalin, I think.

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

Well, Lordamercy, yes, an improvement on Stalin. He was a tyrant on a whole different, mass-murdering level.