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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 1391 Views
i like obama and even i think that was dumb of him. *NM* - 01/03/2014 05:24:39 AM 484 Views
yep yep. why do you hate on Kerry, though ? *NM* - 01/03/2014 08:11:52 AM 393 Views
He's a useless asshat. *NM* - 01/03/2014 04:14:54 PM 396 Views
He's not the only lame duck in this, though. - 01/03/2014 05:41:01 PM 911 Views
It's a little more complicated than that, I think. - 01/03/2014 07:42:20 PM 764 Views
It's always more complicated... - 01/03/2014 08:57:54 PM 757 Views
Yes yes yes. This. - 01/03/2014 09:11:19 PM 708 Views
Well, we split on that then - I most certainly do not support such an annexation. - 01/03/2014 10:25:48 PM 703 Views
Any reason you keep misspelling Sevastopol? - 02/03/2014 12:52:01 AM 893 Views
You write "the Ukraine", while calling me old-fashioned? - 02/03/2014 01:57:58 AM 763 Views
Yes. Dropping "the" is an anti-Russian move. It will always be the Ukraine. - 02/03/2014 02:58:32 AM 770 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 714 Views
I say the Sudan and the Congo. - 02/03/2014 02:17:33 PM 762 Views
You do? Why? - 02/03/2014 03:21:56 PM 845 Views
its going to be hard to find support from the West - 01/03/2014 06:37:15 PM 693 Views
Obama is weak and is viewed as a joke by most of the world. - 03/03/2014 04:12:25 PM 646 Views
Don't worry, not as much as the ape before him *NM* - 04/03/2014 03:23:14 PM 424 Views
So what's your plan of action? - 03/03/2014 11:25:59 PM 718 Views
My plan of action is to let Putin have Ukraine. We have no interests there. *NM* - 04/03/2014 01:29:45 AM 433 Views
Ehem. Why are you being anti-Russian? ;-) - 04/03/2014 01:25:37 PM 744 Views
Of course we do - 04/03/2014 04:57:09 PM 739 Views
Wrong. - 04/03/2014 06:04:31 PM 653 Views
that ignores the point - 06/03/2014 02:01:09 PM 894 Views
No, it doesn't. - 06/03/2014 02:57:16 PM 680 Views
Re: No, it doesn't. - 06/03/2014 06:22:32 PM 740 Views
Yes, the US violated the agreement. - 06/03/2014 07:27:23 PM 791 Views
I have answered your question but you have still refused to answer my point - 07/03/2014 01:48:53 PM 723 Views
You assume that the Ukraine's borders should be inviolate. - 09/03/2014 05:56:45 PM 725 Views
Russia signed an agreement to not violate those borders - 10/03/2014 12:18:37 PM 689 Views
Oh, and now the West is talking about $15 billion in loans for Ukraine. - 05/03/2014 11:41:12 PM 684 Views
And you see that as the same thing as sending in troops? - 06/03/2014 01:37:28 PM 688 Views
I think you've listened to too much propaganda from the 1990s. - 06/03/2014 03:06:18 PM 655 Views
More like the 80s - 07/03/2014 01:50:43 PM 701 Views
So I guess traveling to Russia extensively is of no value. - 09/03/2014 05:58:00 PM 644 Views
in this case no it doesn't. - 10/03/2014 12:20:13 PM 670 Views
The junk they used in Chechnya was laughable... - 16/03/2014 01:51:28 AM 837 Views
Its a great time to throw some missiles in Poland - 04/03/2014 03:43:24 AM 737 Views
Call me crazy, but I like this idea! - 04/03/2014 12:31:07 PM 800 Views
There are no longer two super powers *NM* - 04/03/2014 04:40:16 PM 391 Views
Under Obama, it would seem there are none. *NM* - 04/03/2014 06:15:27 PM 375 Views
at Poland *NM* - 04/03/2014 08:09:14 PM 379 Views
In case you're not familiar with BMD - 04/03/2014 11:13:06 PM 780 Views
I know what you're talking about, I was just kidding around *NM* - 04/03/2014 11:41:20 PM 407 Views
*NM* - 05/03/2014 12:38:54 AM 400 Views
*NM* - 05/03/2014 01:00:57 AM 382 Views
Ron Paul, interestingly enough, agrees with me. - 04/03/2014 02:38:44 PM 695 Views

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