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No, it doesn't. Tom Send a noteboard - 06/03/2014 02:57:16 PM

We also promised the Russians in that memorandum that we wouldn't be intervening in the Ukraine, and we most certainly did. The memorandum is essentially like a contract, and the general principle of contract law is that breach by one side allows the other side to stop performing.

Your characterization of the situation is also flawed: the Crimean referendum is not a "bogus referendum", nor are parts of the Ukraine being "stolen". These are parts of the nation that no longer want to be parts of the nation. If memory serves, we supported "bogus referenda" and the "theft" of Kosovo from Serbia, East Timor from Indonesia and South Sudan from Sudan. In Serbia, the US decided to bomb Serbia for a few months with no real authorization from any international bodies, and in the other cases the US used threats of the same. We also invaded the sovereign state of Iraq on the flimsiest of pretexts.

The question that I then pose is this: if the US can do as it wishes without any international authorization, why can Russia not act to defend its core national interests (naval base at Sevastopol) and its citizens (many in Crimea already have Russian passports), as well as people who are Russians but not citizens solely because they ended up on the wrong side of an arbitrary border in 1991? I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer to this question.

The simple fact is that if US citizens and the US national interest were as directly threatened as Russia's is right now, we wouldn't even be as careful as Russia has been - we would have already overthrown the country and invaded it.



Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
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Don't Make me Laugh, Mr. Obama - 01/03/2014 03:14:50 AM 1491 Views
i like obama and even i think that was dumb of him. *NM* - 01/03/2014 05:24:39 AM 553 Views
yep yep. why do you hate on Kerry, though ? *NM* - 01/03/2014 08:11:52 AM 445 Views
He's a useless asshat. *NM* - 01/03/2014 04:14:54 PM 460 Views
He's not the only lame duck in this, though. - 01/03/2014 05:41:01 PM 1036 Views
It's a little more complicated than that, I think. - 01/03/2014 07:42:20 PM 896 Views
It's always more complicated... - 01/03/2014 08:57:54 PM 888 Views
Yes yes yes. This. - 01/03/2014 09:11:19 PM 819 Views
Well, we split on that then - I most certainly do not support such an annexation. - 01/03/2014 10:25:48 PM 825 Views
Any reason you keep misspelling Sevastopol? - 02/03/2014 12:52:01 AM 1010 Views
You write "the Ukraine", while calling me old-fashioned? - 02/03/2014 01:57:58 AM 885 Views
Yes. Dropping "the" is an anti-Russian move. It will always be the Ukraine. - 02/03/2014 02:58:32 AM 892 Views
Just because there's an article in Russian doesn't mean there has to be one in English. - 02/03/2014 11:21:25 AM 835 Views
I say the Sudan and the Congo. - 02/03/2014 02:17:33 PM 886 Views
You do? Why? - 02/03/2014 03:21:56 PM 967 Views
its going to be hard to find support from the West - 01/03/2014 06:37:15 PM 841 Views
Obama is weak and is viewed as a joke by most of the world. - 03/03/2014 04:12:25 PM 771 Views
Don't worry, not as much as the ape before him *NM* - 04/03/2014 03:23:14 PM 476 Views
So what's your plan of action? - 03/03/2014 11:25:59 PM 840 Views
My plan of action is to let Putin have Ukraine. We have no interests there. *NM* - 04/03/2014 01:29:45 AM 487 Views
Ehem. Why are you being anti-Russian? ;-) - 04/03/2014 01:25:37 PM 872 Views
Of course we do - 04/03/2014 04:57:09 PM 869 Views
Wrong. - 04/03/2014 06:04:31 PM 772 Views
that ignores the point - 06/03/2014 02:01:09 PM 1024 Views
No, it doesn't. - 06/03/2014 02:57:16 PM 798 Views
Re: No, it doesn't. - 06/03/2014 06:22:32 PM 862 Views
Yes, the US violated the agreement. - 06/03/2014 07:27:23 PM 914 Views
I have answered your question but you have still refused to answer my point - 07/03/2014 01:48:53 PM 841 Views
You assume that the Ukraine's borders should be inviolate. - 09/03/2014 05:56:45 PM 867 Views
Russia signed an agreement to not violate those borders - 10/03/2014 12:18:37 PM 815 Views
Oh, and now the West is talking about $15 billion in loans for Ukraine. - 05/03/2014 11:41:12 PM 806 Views
And you see that as the same thing as sending in troops? - 06/03/2014 01:37:28 PM 804 Views
I think you've listened to too much propaganda from the 1990s. - 06/03/2014 03:06:18 PM 768 Views
More like the 80s - 07/03/2014 01:50:43 PM 823 Views
So I guess traveling to Russia extensively is of no value. - 09/03/2014 05:58:00 PM 770 Views
in this case no it doesn't. - 10/03/2014 12:20:13 PM 779 Views
The junk they used in Chechnya was laughable... - 16/03/2014 01:51:28 AM 960 Views
Its a great time to throw some missiles in Poland - 04/03/2014 03:43:24 AM 875 Views
Call me crazy, but I like this idea! - 04/03/2014 12:31:07 PM 991 Views
There are no longer two super powers *NM* - 04/03/2014 04:40:16 PM 451 Views
Under Obama, it would seem there are none. *NM* - 04/03/2014 06:15:27 PM 428 Views
at Poland *NM* - 04/03/2014 08:09:14 PM 440 Views
In case you're not familiar with BMD - 04/03/2014 11:13:06 PM 872 Views
I know what you're talking about, I was just kidding around *NM* - 04/03/2014 11:41:20 PM 462 Views
*NM* - 05/03/2014 12:38:54 AM 458 Views
*NM* - 05/03/2014 01:00:57 AM 435 Views
Ron Paul, interestingly enough, agrees with me. - 04/03/2014 02:38:44 PM 811 Views

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