Obama Meets With Putin....

[Big RR]

oldr--SFAIK, the deal does not allow for the development of nukes, nor does it require anyone to stand by while it does. What the deal does is to put major limits on technology to enrich uranium/process plutonium, and keep these limits for an extended period (15 years) to a level insufficient for Iran to quickly produce nuclear weapons. After 15 years the limits expire, but hopefully at that point it is hoped we can engage each other more openly and get a more long term deal going forward. But what it does do is to give us some time to develop that relationship. As I said, the alternative is to go in with guns blazing, but we need iran to work with us on other ME peace initiatives and to keep Iraqi hardliners in line.

Can they cheat--sure, cheating can be done in any agreement. But it is up to future leaders to make sure they do not. Likewise, what happens when the limits expire depend on what those future leaders are able to accomplish. If they fail, it is not a failure of this agreement, it is their failure (although you can be sure they will try to blame anyone else before accepting the blame).

[Long Run]

Obama: good at one-liners ("The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back " ha-ha); bad at solving or reducing significant problems. You can't blame all the results on him, our country can only do so much foreign policy intervention and certain events were set in motion years ago, but clearly, he's not The Answer.

[Big RR]

The problem with formulating foreign policy is that we don't even have agreed upon objectives of it; indeed, that's something we rarely have. Without that, it's difficult to make any decision on how effective/ineffective it is.

[rubato]

What does Putin want? What are his goals in this? I find this much harder to understand than his meddling in Ukraine but perhaps it isn't different. Putin's Russia is a thugocracy and his foreign policy is identify corrupt weak leaders who will then be his puppets. In Ukraine his hireling was thrown out and he used the chaos to annex Crimea and begin a low-level civil war in the border areas. What gain does Putin seek here? He will certainly profit personally if Assad has to run for a rathole in Russia when/if he is overthrown but why would Putin want Assad to stay in power? What will he get then? I don't think that is at all clear.

For my part, I think we need Obama to call Putin's Russia what it is, a brutal, corrupt and evil government, and find ways to support the opposition. Telling the truth is powerful. And I'm still sorry that the GOP with their "whatever Obama is for we're against it" policy blocked us from retaliating for Assad's chemical weapons attacks. In retrospect it is even clearer that it was the right thing to do.



Yours,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Aw gee whiz rube, and you were doing so well in that post...

Right up until this bit of of dishonest twaddle:

I'm still sorry that the GOP with their "whatever Obama is for we're against it" policy blocked us from retaliating for Assad's chemical weapons attacks.

...that bizarre decision one year ago (to the day) when Obama decided to ask Congress for approval for air strikes in Syria, that he said he had already decided on, and (correctly) asserted (and still correctly asserts) he did not need prior approval from Congress for?

(That was Obama's foreign policy equivalent of his decision to turn the stimulus package over to Nancy Pelosi; a complete un-forced disaster)

When Obama made it clear that he was readying airstrikes against Syria, the entire leadership of both Houses of Congress in both parties (Boehner, Pelosi, Reid and McConnell) made it clear publicly that all they expected was "consultation" under the War Powers Act; not some legislative act for authorization... (This was SOP; no President had ever sought prior Congressional approval for such a limited action; and the Courts had never required that he should)

Yeah, there were some lefty peace-nicks and Tea Party type neo-isolationists who were squawking, but they were of no significant political account...

Obama cooked up that horribly ill advised idea after Cameron failed to whip the vote in the House of Commons to bring the Brits in with us on the operation, (even though the French were on board) because somebody, (and I'd really like to know who that somebody was; a Russian mole perhaps?) convinced him he needed some other form of "political cover" for the decision....

That embarrassing self-inflicted amateurish fiasco made a wonderful impression on Vladimir Putin...

Both Obama and the country have been paying a steep price for that pratfall ever since...

[Big RR]

Jim--what is that "steep price" the country has been paying?

[Lord Jim]

Is that a rhetorical question?

Look around the globe...

We are neither feared nor respected by friend or foe, anywhere on the planet...

Commitments, threats and promises made by this country are considered to be a total joke...

[Big RR]

Perhaps, perhaps not. But I don't look at rhetoric, I look at actual events. Sure, our combat troops may be attacked, but have we really been under any attack from those who disrespect and laugh at us? I don't see it.

[wesw]

no one trusts us either.

do you think that electing Hillary will fix that?

I am finally willing to question Obama s motives. it appears to me, finally, that he must have an agenda designed to destroy America as we know it. as to why he wants this, I m not sure. none of the reasons that seem possible are appealing.

I don t believe a word he says ..., about anything .

I do not believe he is a patriot and I do not believe that he is a loyal citizen of America.

period.

oh. thank god Boehner is resigning. his whole approach and 'better than the rabble' attitude and his whole moneyed elite life is bad for us all.

Pelosi and reid are evil personified.

my god, I expect Pelosi to have a nervous breakdown any day now. is she being blackmailed by the Chinese or what? good lord she looks stressed. god help her.

...and reid? if anyone is ever gonna go postal on the senate floor it s gonna be him. he is all in. whoever beat the hell out of him a while back was just punishing him for some failure. he is determined to get back in some nasty groups good graces. weasel.

wake up. the dem party is determined that everyone who does not conform to their wishes will be painted as evil. you had better stand up to them and call out their bullshit publicly, or they just may win.

all you dems who don t like Hillary, washerwoman-Schultz, Pelosi and reid, had better stand up to your party and make it your own.

same to you repubs., chaffetz for speaker.

[Gob]

no one trusts us either.

Bush's legacy.