Tag Archives: defense policy

Naïve or Incompetent?

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The European Union is targeting 19 individuals linked to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, including five Russians, in a new list of sanctions set for approval on Monday [9 Feb].

Yeah, that’ll show ’em.

The EU now has visa bans and asset freezes on 132 individuals and 28 entities.

This latest is in response to Russia’s and their rebels’ in Ukraine renewed offensives to expand the Donetsk Oblast territory they hold and to seize Mariupol, a key Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov and a key city on the land bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea that Russia wants so desperately.

Never mind that these hand slaps haven’t bothered Russia’s MFWIC, Vladimir Putin. Never mind that he doesn’t think like western Europeans or Americans, and so is never likely to be bothered by the things that would bother western Europeans or Americans.

On the contrary, Russia has reacted with threats and so much sterner actions by the EU and the US are required. Unfortunately, the leaderships are too naïve or incompetent to take them. This…foolishness…is illustrated by our own Secretary of State John Kerry:

We are not interested in a proxy war. Our objective is to change Russia’s behavior[.]

All while ignoring the fact that to change Russia’s behavior, it’s necessary to (to coin a phrase) incentivize them to change their behavior: arm Ukraine so they have the wherewithal to defeat the Russian and Russian-backed rebels, drive the former out of occupied Ukraine, and recover their national integrity.

Update: The EU has chosen to delay even this latest round while French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel travel to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to beg Vladimir Putin anew for peace.

Threats

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Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine and Russian troops there have renewed their offensive in an effort to expand their hold on the oblast of Donetsk and to seize the Ukrainian Sea of Azov port city of Mariupol as part of opening a land bridge from Russia to Russian-occupied Crimea. In response to this, western European leaders and President Barack Obama are making noises about extending existing sanctions and, perhaps, broadening them to include cutting Russia off from the international financial system. In response to this, Russia threatens.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Jan 27 that if Russia is cut off from the Swift international payment system as punishment for its actions in Ukraine, its response “will know no limits.” Andrei Kostin, the head of VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, said excluding Russia from Swift would mean “war.” Igor Ivanov, the former foreign minister, said that a confrontation could involve nuclear weapons.

These are people with whom negotiation is impossible, with whom a negotiated withdrawal of Russia from Ukraine cannot be had.

Threats such as these should make any response impossible other than cutting Russia off from Swift, promptly. And arming Ukraine so they can defend themselves from this Russian aggression.

Jordan Understands the Threat

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Regarding the ISIS-held Jordanian pilot Lt Muath al-Kaseasbeh: in the aftermath of the Japanese journalists’ butcheries, Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn al Hussein appears to be taking a hard line. Correctly so.

Elijah Magnier, chief international correspondent for Kuwait’s Al Rai newspaper, told MailOnline: “I have reliable contact in the Jordanian government who says a message has been passed to ISIS.

“It warns that if they kill the pilot they will implement the death sentences for Sajida and other ISIS prisoners as soon as possible.

“There are other prisoners in Jordan that ISIS would like to free.”

A thing that might color the King’s decision: Catherine Herridge of Fox News thinks the second Japanese journalist had already been butchered at the time of the “negotiations” for a swap. The pilot may already be dead, also.

I’m not sure al Hussein’s line would work in the United States; it would start us down a slippery slope to what for us would be a very dark place. But I’m not at all going to criticize the King of Jordan for taking such a step should he find it necessary.

 

h/t Belmont Club

The Party of No

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Democratic Party obstructionism continues in the Senate. Recall that the Democrats refused to allow over 300 House-passed jobs-related bills even to come up for debate in the last session and how they shut down the Federal government over a House-passed spending bill that fully funded the government but that didn’t have an additional 2% of what the Democrats demanded.

They’re at it again. The House has passed a bill that fully funds the Department of Homeland Security for the year, which under the last session’s compromise passed in December, had only been funded through the end of this month. The bill also rolls back a number of President Barack Obama’s unconstitutional immigration “executive actions.” Obama’s minions in the Senate are vowing to block the bill, to filibuster it.

Obama has promised to veto the bill, should it make it past the Senate Democrats’ obstructionism. Obama and his minions are fully prepared to shut down HHS, to walk completely away from what little border security they’re willing to provide today, if they can’t have 100% of their way.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) has made the question clear:

It’s a debate that will challenge our colleagues on the other side with a simple proposition. Do they think presidents of either party should have the power to simply ignore laws that they don’t like? Well, will our Democratic colleagues work with us to defend key democratic ideals like separation of powers and the rule of law? Or will they stand tall for the idea that partisan exercises of raw power are good things? The House-passed bill we’ll consider would do two things. Fund the Department of Homeland Security and rein in executive overreach. That’s it. It’s simple….

Remember the Democrats’ behavior in 2016.

In a Just World

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The Jordanian pilot, the one whom ISIS was wanting to trade for a terrorist in a Jordanian prison has been burned alive. Our President, Barack Obama had this to say:

Should in fact this video be authentic, it’s just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization. This organization appears only interested in death and destruction.

Notice that: “this organization.” Obama still can’t find the…something…to recognize these as Islamic terrorists.

More importantly, this should now be a no-quarter war. These terrorists, and the nations who continue to support them, have forfeited their right to exist.

But our President has no clue of justice.