Obama: No US military involvement in Ukraine

[DonViejo]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is repeating his position that involving the U.S. military in Ukraine is not an option he is considering.

Obama said Thursday that is because what’s happening in Eastern Europe is not a situation that would be amenable to a military solution.

Instead, Obama says Russia has to create an environment in which separatist forces that are occupying buildings in Ukraine disarm and begin negotiations with Ukraine’s interim government. He says there must also be progress on reforms that meet the interests of various groups inside Ukraine, that elections be held and the country stabilizes its economy.

He says thousands of Russian troops massed along the Ukrainian border were sent there as a “gesture of intimidation.”

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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/04/17/obama_no_us_military_involvement_in_ukraine/

[davidpdx]

1. No surprise there

He didn't send troops in to Syria either despite some DUers screaming that he would.

[pasto76]

8. my thoughts exactly.

I have been wondering where the plain _hysteria_ has gone. WAR WAR WAR WAR

it was even more absurd when that same crowd started claiming they had "stopped another war", when it was clear that the President was months ahead of any of them.

tell you I used to support Grayson, but he turned that "we stopped another war" into a pillar of his fundraising.

[davidpdx]

15. Yep

That's exactly why their US imperialist warmongering meme is completely false.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Dick Cheney can't be too happy.

There goes his Halliburton stock

[former9thward]

4. Halliburton hit a 52 week high today.

It is so big that no one cares about an Eastern European country.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. Actually I did check Halliburton's price before posting

It's mostly rhetorical comment. More business like a war would certainly help it while most other stocks would fall.

[former9thward]

7. I have to disagree with you.

I think our economy has been based on a cold/hot war basis since WW II. True peace would kill it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. You're free to disagree however

I remember the hit the stock market took leading up to the Iraq war.

[former9thward]

20. The stock market likes stability.

It did not know what would happen if we went to war. But it adjusted just fine and hit new highs while we have been at war for the last 13 years.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

3. Putin likes to pick fights with places he can overpower.

Russia has become the modern 1930s Germany. . .and before I get the "you made a nazi reference," if you look at the things said then by Hitler and the things said by Putin and his supporters (even their relations with Jews), they sound familiar.

Hitler wanted all Germans under the German flag. Putin wants all Russians and will annex and take over parts of countries to get that.

[daleo]

5. So does the U.S. And the west in general

So, a war between the west and Russia is unlikely. Neither wants a war that is an actual existential risk.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

12. I see. . .the US has dirty hands, so it excuses Russian action.

Makes no sense.

[leftynyc]

17. That kind of simplistic thinking

has taken over DU on this issue.

[jakeXT]

18. "...our conventional forces are significantly superior to the Russians.." Obama said

"They’re not interested in any kind of military confrontation with us, understanding that our conventional forces are significantly superior to the Russians. We don’t need a war," Obama said, according to a transcript of the interview.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/16/obama-russia-doesnt-want-any-kind-of-military-confrontation-with-us/

[daleo]

21. It was a simple observation, not a judgement pro or con

As such, it made perfect sense - a logical series of connected statements.

Russia prefers to only fight weak enemies.
The west prefers to only fight weak enemies.

Since neither Russia nor the West can reasonably be considered weak, they won't fight each other.

[Shemp Howard]

19. I'm unsure about the Hitler-Putin comparison.

True, Hitler wanted all Germans under the German flag. But Hitler also meant to take Warsaw, Paris, and Moscow.

Does Putin really plan to take over all - or most - of Europe? I think not. One, or both, of these is more likely:

1. Putin is a nationalist (as opposed to an expansionist).

2. Putin is actually making what he considers to be defensive moves.

NATO has been encroaching on Russia for years. Even the Baltic states are now members. How would the US behave if, back in the 1970's, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho broke away from the US and joined the Warsaw Pact?

No, I'm not a Putinista. But I do try to see events from all sides.

[Armadotrasgo]

10. Why the whitehouse

ever pretended we had a security interest in Ukraine in the first place was a puzzlement.

[Cha]

11. the White House hasn't "pretended" anything.

[Armadotrasgo]

13. Missing the point of your post.

Chuck Hagel made the Sunday talk show rounds trying ( and failing in my view) to make the case that we have a strategic interest in Ukraine. Is it your point that the U.S. Actually has such an interest, so you quarrel with my use of the word "pretending"?

[blkmusclmachine]

14. "Peace doesn't PAY (nearly as well)."

[jakeXT]

16. If Russia fails to create an environment in which separatist forces disarm and begin negotiations ?

Russia has to create an environment in which separatist forces that are occupying buildings in Ukraine disarm and begin negotiations with Ukraine’s interim government.

They barely got Russian TV on there, how should they do it ?

ANDRIYIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Armed men took over a television tower in eastern Ukraine on Thursday and switched it to Russian channels playing an almost non-stop stream of sound-bites from a marathon TV phone-in by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Employees at the tower said the men, who were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, barged in after arriving in cars and frightening off guards by firing a shot.

TV engineers accompanying the men then took Ukrainian channels off the air and replaced them with five Russian channels.

The channels included Russia 1, Russia 24 and ORT - some of the most popular state-controlled channels - which were broadcasting clips of Putin's TV phone-in.

http://news.yahoo.com/armed-men-put-putin-air-eastern-ukraine-180815145--sector.html