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Air disaster over Ukraine

The pro-Russian militants have really stepped in it here. I hope the perpetrators will be brought to justice for the murder of innocent life. Any moral credibility they might have thought their movement had prior to this, has evaporated in the court of world public opinion. Oddly enough it's similar to all the propaganda value, goodwill and positive afterglow that Putin hoped Russia would benefit from for at least a few years after the Olympic Games. He spent billions of dollars the country didn't have to spare. It was the most money that any country had ever spent on a winter Olympic Games, with much of it lost to bribes, kickbacks and corruption. Hoping for a big payoff in world opinion of Russia after the Games, he squandered every bit of that by immediately resorting to Soviet behavior on the world stage. So the world sees Putin for his true colors.

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Hugs, Tampa - I hope you're right.

"A" XOXOXOXOXO

*Tampa for President, in '16!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Dd0EaEbqg
 
Hey, Louis:

Though I think it is a separable subject (and ought to be separated, from this one): I also believe that Barack Obama will be remembered as a very good President. His achievements in rescuing the U.S. (and to some extent, the rest of the world) from the worst effects of the recession which preceded his election - AND in extending health-care to a much greater segment of the American population, are (in my opinion) monumental.

Louis, why do I care? I'm not American, and I'm not partisan, along American lines. (Obviously Roosevelt was a great President; I think Truman was a good President; and I think even NIXON. . . with détente, the normalization of relations with China, and some rather advanced social-welfare policies - though you and Tampa might want to punch my lights out for saying so - MIGHT have been a pretty good President, too - if he hadn't been so addicted to power, he was willing to CHEAT, for it. Though, if that gets your ire up, I think we could do a separate thread, on the subject ;-) For the record, I think George H.W. Bush was a good President, but that his son, George W. Bush, was a MORON, and probably ought to have been hung for treason ;-))) *I'm taking a little literary licence, obviously.*

But, I DO have an American boyfriend, and it matters a lot to me, what happens to him. And so, I am full of admiration for what Barack Obama has done, for health-care; and for LGBT people (even if he was dragged along, a bit); and for the economy.

I DON'T think Barack Obama (Jon) is quite the squeamish "dove" people sometimes think he is. He made an end of Osama bin Laden (and gave the order when some people advising him were scared, about it); and he has used drone-strikes more widely and effectively than any President before him. (Hilariously, "Darth Vader"'s little brother, Dick Cheney, was on "Charlie Rose" not that long ago, and protested - speaking of the drone-programme - "We thought of it FIRST!!!" LOL!!!)

One thing Obama has NOT done, is get into wars, in a precipitate fashion. I think this is very WISE. (Anyone who was forced to study English history, as I was, as a lad. . . knows that England's greatness was founded upon the fact that Henry VII ~ Henry VIII's much-less-famous Dad ~ was such a CHEAP WELSHMAN, he kept England out of any and every possible war. . . because he knew it would COST HIM MONEY. And thereby laid the foundation for England's future, as a great power. (I'm a Scot, and the "cheap" part of it makes intuitive sense, to me.)

Arguably, I think President Obama may have "misunderestimated" (to use his predecessor's term) how complex and fraught Irag and Afghanistan were going to be, after American withdrawal. I imagine it would have been better (in terms of foreign-policy and leverage upon these rather sad regimes) to keep more American troops there, for longer. (On the other hand, in the case of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki didn't really give President Obama a lot of choice. . . though I think President Obama wasn't looking for those sorts of choices, back then.)

People say Obama screwed up, on Syria. I think he made one and only one mistake, on the whole file. . . and that was drawing his famous "red line", vis-a-vis Hafez al-Assad. But I think (sad though it is) there is precious little the U.S. could have done to intervene or help there, despite Assad's atrocities.

And no doubt, one of two things, is bound to happen, in Iraq. Either, #1 - It is going to end up as an Iranian-dominated principality. Or, #2 - It is going to be fractured into three sections - Sunni, Shi'ite (under the domination of Iran), and Kurdish. In either case, the place is going to require considerable attention in the coming years, ESPECIALLY if the Sunni region continues under the control of radical terrorists from the "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham."

That's not Obama's fault - though now he has to deal with this slow, slow (but very explosive) train-wreck. It's George W. Bush's fault. Bush the younger opened that awful Iraqi can of worms (which his Dad had wisely left upon the shelf): and now, not only Obama, but every President who follows him, will have to be looking into (if not cleaning up) that can of worms, for the next half-a-century, if not longer.

As to Russia - I feel that Obama has more-or-less played it right, on Russia, despite the fact that he has very few cards, to play. (The Europeans have more, but. . . they're holding them close to their chest, waiting to see if they can win the last hand.

Louis, I don't envy President Obama, at all. Because he got the worst hand, of any President, since F.D.R. However, unlike F.D.R. - he didn't get a true Depression (because Obama helped to stave it off): or a WAR (because he tries to stay out of them) - and so, paradoxically, a lot of his record will be a sort of parchment palimpsest, bearing the faintest impressions of things that DIDN'T HAPPEN. But that's all good, for the people who actually have to LIVE THROUGH these times.

"A" XOXOXOXOXOXO

P.S. Since I've gone so far out on a limb, on this one. . . and have probably pissed off liberals and conservatives ALIKE - - - here is a special anthem to Henry Kissinger (Tampa's personal hero - ROFL!!!) ~ just for TAMPA ;-) "Henry Kissinger - how I'm missing ya!" ~ Monty Python: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7qV_E4eaXM
 
Thanks for the replies Ambi, much to which are far over my head. I had to get the Oxford dictionary out to most of it lol. But I do get your drift but disagree about what you said about Europe needing Russia to keep us warm. We still have oil reserves and if needed we could stop taking oil from Russia as part of the sanctions. We may have to call on the help of the US to hasten their export of gas and oil but hey, it's a combined goal that will only be achieved if we all play for the same team.

Gas and oil have made Russia rich and only a complete cut off will make them think that the West means serious business.
 
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