You may be right, but Putin’s endgame is to knock America down a peg while destabilizing the entire Western Alliance concept of “ideals-based world leadership”. Putin thinks Russia would thrive under a return to a world stage where Great Power nations are the big players once again. America is the biggest obstacle in the way of that goal.
I agree though that there was probably no way for Russia to foresee what has happened, and that their original plan was probably to accomplish much of this on the down low, rather than suddenly have a spotlight shined on them as the orchestrator of America’s chaotic power shift. They still benefit greatly though, it just makes it harder for them to take advantage to manipulate specific outcomes now that everyone knows their fingers pull the strings.
The president does not need to get a congressional declaration of war in order to exercise military power.
Having congressional backing to take such actions is certainly preferable, but not required. If Obama required it, based on his own personal set of beliefs, then he should have secured such backing PRIOR to making a threat which required that response.
You are intentionally refusing to acknowledge this clear error on Obama’s part, where he wrote a made a threat and then failed to back it up. He either should have NOT made the threat, or he should have backed it up. What he did was, unquestionably, wrong.
Oh wait, we’re supposed to be an echo chamber. Obama was perfect in every way. His drone strikes were the best and it’s awesome how he didn’t protect our civil liberties.
Yeah, it’s all speculation, this will be a thing we’ll have to see what shakes out. No doubt Putin is scrambling to use this to every possible advantage but as a for instance, it doesn’t really take any steps toward solving Russia’s money problems, which are significant.
I am not refusing to acknowledge the error, I’m saying that the consequences attributed to it and the hard line you are taking about it are unfair and incorrect. I do not agree that there are no circumstances where a threat should be a bluff, nor do I agree that every threat ever made in earnest should be followed through without consideration of the new situation. Finally, I’m not entirely sure I agree that Obama did nothing to back up his threat, even though Congress nixed the military response. I don’t know what he did and I think it made him look weaker that he didn’t trumpet it, but I do know that Assad didn’t use any more chemical weapons, and something about Obama’s response is the most likely reason (unless he actually never used them in the first place and it really was a fake report or a Russia attempt to call Obama’s bluff). He responded to Crimea forcefully and effectively with sanctions, but he was still called weak, though, so I guess America still wants all bad actions by foreign countries to be punished with bombs.
But in the rush to trample all over the dossier and its contents, one key question remained. Why had America’s intelligence agencies felt it necessary to provide a compendium of the claims to Barack Obama and Trump himself?
And the answer to that lies in the credibility of its apparent author, the ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele, the quality of the sources he has and the quality of the people prepared to vouch for him.
I would think a true weakened position in the international community would encourage additional attempts. I never said it was a guarantee though. It just seems like if someone is caught and they don’t think there’s going to be a consequences, they might try more.
Anyway, i appreciate the continued conversation and lack of insults just the same. Wires clearly got crossed as to where I was going, and that’s not the first time that’s happened here.
I was going to bring up Libya, too. Been a long time since I’ve thought about it but iirc Obama acted in Libya without Congressional approval. After that turned out so well I’m sure he felt all gung ho to do the same in Syria at a larger scale!
I’d actually say that Timex is putting forth the position that all US administrations had more or less from the end of World War 2 through the end of the Cold War.
