Perception is everything in international affairs, as in most things human. Compared to any powerful nation in history, America has prevailed magnificently since WWII as its presence around the world has enabled most of humanity to live in a somewhat subdued degree of peace. America could not stop all dictators, but its presence and its threat of action imposed a calm where none would have been possible. Today, a world without American leadership through willful strength, descends into chaos.
Identifying and audibly pinpointing terrorists and vicious thugs wherever they are and putting them on notice — notice that their acts will not stand, is a step toward getting them to back down. Putin’s henchmen have more than slightly embarrassed the Russian dictator and have provided Obama with yet another opportunity to embarrass himself. Killing 298 innocent citizens of Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Philippines, Canada, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, is a serious international crime. There is no doubt who bears the whole weight of responsibility for this crime. Putin invaded the Ukraine.
Did Obama demand with authority that the crash site be preserved? Did he emphatically state that there would be dire consequences if the area was not preserved or was desecrated, and vandalized? Did he order that the airplane’s black-box be collected and delivered to an international body for examination? The fund-raiser-in-chief instead made the unbelievable claim that the Ukraine, the separatists, and Russia could end the fighting. Huh? Is it news that the Ukraine has been invaded by Russia? Putin invades and the Ukraine is supposed lay down and play dead? What’s he saying, . . . “Don’t fight, that might further anger the Russian dictator?”
The crash site has been irreversibly violated, but we have a ‘johnny-on-the-spot, Putin-controlled “rebel” commander, Igor Girkin, claiming, “many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.” Such completely idiotic statements can only come from someone in serious fear for his life — fear of displeasing his dictator and disappearing altogether.
Just in case there is uncertainty about the invasion of Ukraine, or how Putin governs, or even who his human tools are in the invasion game, here is an image for the ages:
This is the Putin-proclaimed Prime Minister of the pro-Russian separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Borodai (centre, if there is any doubt), arriving at the crash site. This goon has no uncertainty on one thing, . . . he knows for whom the bell tolls — Putin’s bell tolls for him.
Here’s another low-life running things inside the Ukraine on behalf of Putin:
This is Paul Gubarevhe, Putin’s governor of the Donetsk region, Paul Gubarev, surrounded by armed guards as he “inspects” (read = destroys) the debris field. Putin is orchestrating more than an invasion. He is taking advantage of the Washington Administration’s weak leadership and building his presence, near-field and distant, around the world. Thugs, street thugs, are being installed as political henchmen executing Putin’s will in the Ukraine just as he similarly installed Mayors throughout Russia to ensure his own re-election for life. Those Mayors remain in control and in wealth, as long as they tow the Putin line and “pay” homage to his lordship.
Installation of thugs to control foreign sovereign soil, is otherwise called “sticking a finger in Obama’s eye.”
There is NO disagreement that, as Romney tried to explain to Obama during the Presidential campaign debates, “Russia presents the biggest geopolitical threat.” We can all recall Obama making fun of him, instructing Romney that this wasn’t the ’80s and the Cold War was over. “Clueless” doesn’t begin to describe it.
The current Administration resting on the opulence provided by the White House, has changed the world’s perception of all things “American.” It has systematically dismantled America’s rudder in the world, and it has eliminated the positive impetus that has historically defined America on the International stage. Vacancy of leadership has rendered America impotent. The whole world feels it. This week, the families of 298 souls which have passed-on, feel it very personally.
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.