by Nomad
If Putin doesn't seem very worried about President Obama's warnings against Russian new expansionist policies, it shouldn't come as a shock.
With the Republicans launching attack after attack on the President, attempting to undermine his authority, it's only natural that Putin wouldn't take the American president seriously.
Kent Schäfer, Outreach Program Director for Progressive Centralists, asks a important question in the op-ed piece below. By constantly painting the president as a weak leader, Schafer asks, have Obama's right wing critics and Putin admirers simply emboldened the Russian leader?
First, I believe that Sarah Palin's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in concert with other harshly worded conservative statements, crafted to paint Barack Obama as weak -- have played a significant role in the Russian proxy-invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, eastern Ukraine, and in the death of those killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight-17.
Do my thoughts come easily? Am I just lambasting my opponents with empty rhetoric? No.
It hurts my patriotic soul to think that Americans, in an unabashed quest for fame and voter support, would undermine our country and our president and risk much to further their self serving "free speech" condemnation of our foreign policy. We (the U.S.) represent a chief obstacle to Putin's unlawful expansion by force throughout Europe —and not for a second should any American believe that Russian leaders and their Oligarchy would not continue to invade (by proxy) countries at will if unopposed;
—the Kremlin is just waiting with 'baited breath' for the opportunity to protract their crescive regional power and exploit the natural and human resources of each fallen state as they go.
So yesterday, in lieu of war with Russia, President Obama launched a new round of U.S. sanction artillery, aimed at combating Putin's proxy-militia advances into Ukrainian's sovereign territory —and for the horrific events surrounding MH-17.
And I cannot help but cynically say that: if President Obama had chosen to mass warships near Russian (another 'Bay of Pigs'), the majority of anti-Obama-conservatives would scream 'warmonger' as they did with FDR prior to entering WWII; -delaying our involvement and indirectly contributing to the deaths of many, many Jews and even Americans at Pearl Harbor.
And I cannot help but cynically say that: if President Obama had chosen to mass warships near Russian (another 'Bay of Pigs'), the majority of anti-Obama-conservatives would scream 'warmonger' as they did with FDR prior to entering WWII; -delaying our involvement and indirectly contributing to the deaths of many, many Jews and even Americans at Pearl Harbor.
We cannot adequately project honorable strength and protect ourselves as a nation, while uncontested vitriol is more popular than sound thinking and swift prudent action.
The fact is: Putin is well-aware of President Obama's strenuous relationship with Republicans and the Tea Party's racist disrespectful antics -- and knows-too-well that he (Barack Obama) cannot rely upon the right wing held Congress to support any good suggestion or direction change made by this administration.
I think President Roosevelt hit the nail on the head when saying: "It's a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there."
This administration is engaged in diplomatic warfare —the kind that doesn't cost more American lives or produce hundreds of thousands of new Veterans; that right wing will try to forget "financially" when the bill comes- due for their post-war care.
I assert, that we must not protect political speech that exacerbates ill-fated consequences. Who must be condemned here: is not only the authoritarian power grabber we readily see Putin personifying -- but also those who level criticism at the cost of any decent human's life foreign or domestic.
This malignant behavior only serves to confound peaceful progress and largely promotes tyranny.
(This article was reprinted with permission. Thanks, Kent.)
