Obama "Playing With Himself" On Ukraine

by JASmius

Okay, so I edited Pete Hoekstra's money quote a little bit - as a general rule, the more colorful a statement, the more accurate it becomes:

President Barack Obama's warning to Russia that "there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine" proves that "the president's playing with a weak hand," former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra told Newsmax on Friday.

"The president talked about 'there will be costs,'" Hoekstra said in an exclusive interview. "He didn't say what those would be. What does this mean? Where does it go?"

Odd; you'd think with all the divots he churns up, his hands would be extraordinarily strong.

As to the costs of invading Ukraine, as I mentioned last night, O will pick up the tab on our behalf.

Darth Queeg, the heir apparent to the only function in government for which he is remotely suited - Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee - was also less than impressed with the studly aura of The One's rhetorical studmuffinness:

Senator John McCain charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has not had a great deal of respect for President Obama — and they've had a very chilly relationship.

"Putin has made it clear many times that he will restore the way of Russia, and Ukraine is the crown jewel," the Arizona Republican, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN.

"When Putin sees the President of the United States say that we will act if you cross a red line and we don’t … I think Vladimir Putin, the former KGB operative that he is, does not have a belief that the penalty for this behavior will be very severe."

What penalty?  Two strokes after O's tee shot landed in the Black Sea?

"What we're seeing now is Vladimir Putin's commitment and absolute belief that Ukraine's part of Russia — and he's not going to let it go," McCain told CNN. "That is something that they are going to have to understand in our relations with Vladimir Putin."

The senator noted that Russian troops have taken over two Ukrainian airports.

"It's not going to be Russian tanks. It's going to be Russian special forces, special operations, who will be essentially taking over the country."

Putin's belief about Ukraine isn't exactly new or unannounced.  But, as a comparison, when Viktor Yanukovych was a contestant for the Ukrainian presidency and Putin was itching to act upon his rooting interests a decade ago - when George W. Bush, the conqueror of Afghanistan and Iraq, was president - what happened instead?  The Orange Revolution and the peaceful turning of Ukraine towards the West.  Ten years later, Putin's meddling-by-proxy via "President" Yanukovych fails after the Ukrainian people again reject Russification, so he just goes ahead, without any pretense, and invades Ukraine on the watch of the surrenderer of Afghanistan and Iraq.  There's a message in there for those who wish to learn it.

And, contra Sailor.....:

But later Friday CNN showed photographs of Russian tanks near the Ukraine city of Sevastopol. Also, The Associated Press reported a convoy of nine Russian armored personnel carriers and a truck on a road between Sevastopol and the regional capital, Simferopol.

Maybe his thrusters aren't even firing on his core expertise area.  But then, he isn't a conservative, either.

Ex-Bush Administration Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton made an interesting observation that I'm ashamed to say I didn't catch last night:

"Putin at this point holds all the high cards — and all we have from the president is rhetoric," former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton told Greta Van Susteren on her Fox News program.

Bolton noted especially that Obama did not mention the U.S. when he said, "Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interest of Ukraine, Russia, or Europe."

"He didn't mention the United States," Bolton told Van Susteren. "It suggests that the United States has no interests in the Ukraine — and that's all Putin wanted to hear."

All there's EVER been from this president is rhetoric.  Remember, that's all he believes he needs.  All he hath but to do is speaketh, and the waters will part, the planet will heel, the species will swoon, and he'll have an endless line of volunteers to do his caddying.

But remember also the words he has uttered.  "America is not exceptional"; "America has arrogantly dictated to the rest of the world"; "America will lead from behind".  Combine those two factors and then look at O's "destabilizing" comment again and it makes perfect sense; for a ruler whose mission is the dismantling of American power, it is entirely in the interests of the United States to encourage Russia to destabilize all of eastern Europe so as to take it back over.  It is, in essence, to hand off to Vladimir Putin the mantle of global military superpower in much the same way that he's handed off the mantle of global economic superpower to Red China and the mantle of global religiocultural superpower to Islam.

I think the people of Ukraine made their will known when they ousted Viktor Yanukovych last week, just like the people of Egypt made their will known when they drove out the Obama-backed Muslim Brotherhood last summer, and when the Iranian people rose up against the Obama-backed mullahs in the Green Revolution five years ago.  It's almost as if Red Barry doesn't believe his own "popular sovereignty" dronings.

But that couldn't be - could it?

Back in the Clinton occupation I used to say that what Sick Willie truly sought was to be Governor of the United States, not president, because aside from the occasional natural disaster, governors aren't commanders-in-chief.  Barack Obama is of similar bent - he wants no distractions from his cause of domestic "fundamental transformation" - but it's worse than that.  I think Vlad Putin could launch a blitzkrieg across all of Europe, beyond even the old iron curtain boundaries, and The One wouldn't react any differently than he did last night.  Ditto North Korea nuking Tokyo, or the ChiComms seizing Taiwan.  If he could be bothered to come in off the back nine, there he would stand, droning on about "red lines" and "costs" and "destabilization" and "sovereignty" and all the bad guys would hear, if they were even paying attention, would be Mrs. Othmar "wah wah wah"-ing straight out of the Peanuts cartoons.  Because they all know what is dawning on some Americans: Barack Obama's interests ARE those of Vladimir Putin, Bashar Assad, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian mullagharchs, Kim jong Un, the ChiComms.

And when they arrive at America's doorstep, the golfer-in-chief will do nothing, absolutely nothing, to get in their way.