Mitt Romney: Russia is America's #1 geopolitical foe (1 Viewer)

[SaintsInDome2006]

Let's be clear (again): despite Putin's erratic behavior, it is in our long term interest to be allies with Russia. They need not be a geopolitical threat to us unless we make it so.

Guess what they're dragging us into their world, like it or not. One other thing Obama was wrong about, it wasn't the 1980s foreign policy calling, it was the 1950s.

Obama doesn't escape some of the responsibility for this, I agree. But Romney was even more wrong.IMO we have handled Russia badly since the end of the Cold War. For the last 25 years we have made alliances with all of her neighbors, made most of them part of NATO, sold most of them high tech weapons. If any nation on Earth had offered a military alliance to Mexico and Canada and sold them weapons, we would have been at war with them long since. It's a very risky policy and we're lucky we haven't already paid a bigger price for it. And all 4 Presidents are responsible: both Bushes, Clinton and Obama. I've never understood the logic behind this.

You know you and I probably agree with a long litany of mistakes with Russia since about 1990, but that is a whole other issue. Romney was not wrong. Obama was wrong. Not only that but he was wrong and heaped snark on top of the wrong on a hugely important issue. - I really wonder what it must be like to be a policy advisor who brings him bad news or intelligence or reports that don't fit his world view. This is how he acted in a presidential debate, can you imagine what it's like to be some poor policy wonk who has to be the bearer of bad news?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

I still say Greenland is.

For whales, yes, still no. 1 geopolitical foe.

 

[RCon]

Let's be clear (again): despite Putin's erratic behavior, it is in our long term interest to be allies with Russia. They need not be a geopolitical threat to us unless we make it so.

This sentence really couldn't be more wrong. Read this article, then report back.

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8845913/russia-war

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Let's be clear (again): despite Putin's erratic behavior, it is in our long term interest to be allies with Russia. They need not be a geopolitical threat to us unless we make it so.

This sentence really couldn't be more wrong. Read this article, then report back.

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8845913/russia-war

Putin's love of brinksmanship, while perhaps born of Russia's weakness, is also deeply worrying for what it says about the leader's willingness and even eagerness to take on huge geopolitical risk.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

TODD: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter this week picked one of those three, and he has said Russia is, basically, the most important national security threat. Sort of reorienting the defense and the challenges to that. Do you agree with his decisions...

...

TODD: Secretary Clinton, what do you think of Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. He's basically putting Russia above Iran, above North Korea, as sort of the chief national security challenge right now.

CLINTON: I haven't talked to Secretary Carter, but here's what I would think he's planning. We do have the nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, that's an enforcement consequence, action for action, follow on. We have a plan, we will watch them, we will be vigilant.

We do have to worry about North Korea. They continue to develop their nuclear weapons capability, and they're working very hard on their ballistic missile capability.

And, I know that some of those plans could very well lead to a missile that might reach Hawaii, if not the West Coast. We do have to try to get the countries in the region to work with us to do everything we can to confine, and constrain them.

But, what Secretary Carter is looking at is the constant pressure that Russia's putting on our European allies. The way that Russia is trying to move the boundaries of the post-World War II Europe. The way that he is trying to set European countries against one another, seizing territory, holding it in Crimea. Beginning to explore whether they could make some inroads in the Baltics.

We know that they are deeply engaged in supporting Assad because they want to have a place in the Middle East. They have a naval base, they have an air base in Syria. They want to hang on to that. I think what Secretary Carter is seeing, and I'm glad he is, is that we got to get NATO back working for the common defense. We've got to do more to support our partners in NATO, and we have to send a very clear message to Putin that this kind of belligerence, that this kind of testing of boundaries will have to be responded to. The best way to do that is to put more armor in, put more money from the Europeans in so they're actually contributing more to their own defense.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/transcript-msnbc-democratic-candidates-debate-n511036

 

[HellToupee]

It's such a shame Mitt would have been magnificent as president. Believe me , I'm telling you magnificent.

 

[Ladsud]

The Russians have a lot of new heavy tanks of which they are very proud.
The Marshall asked me how I like them . I said that I did not and we had
quite an argument. Apparently I am the first person ever to disagree with him.

 

[moleculo]

This sentence really couldn't be more wrong. Read this article, then report back.

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8845913/russia-war

that's a really good article.  Scary.

 

[Gustavo Fring]

"This is his most cherished objective, to destroy NATO. The risk is big, yes? But the prize is enormous."
 
Putin hopes to spark a conflict in the Baltics, Piontkovsky wrote, so as to force Western European leaders into an impossible choice: Fulfill their NATO obligation to defend the Baltics and counterattack, even if it means fighting World War III over a tiny post-Soviet republic most Europeans couldn't care less about — or do nothing.

The implications of doing nothing, Piontkovsky pointed out, would extend far beyond the Baltics. It would lay bare NATO's mutual defense provision as a lie, effectively dissolving the military alliance, ending a quarter-century of Europe's security unification under Western leadership, and leaving Eastern Europe once more vulnerable to Russian domination. In this way, Putin could do what Soviet leaders never came close to: defeat NATO.

From the vox link posted above...these are very scary times.  

After reading these particular paragraphs, it makes perfect sense why Putin would be trying to tip the political scales towards Trump in this election.  Trump has already said he may not honor NATO, depending on if that country has paid it's fair share or not.  A country like Estonia ($1.3M population) is a prime candidate for a country that has not paid it's fair share.  Putin's plans are obviously much bigger than swaying the US election, but it is one that could provide him with an out to destroy NATO and take back the former Soviet nations.  Just a (scary) thought I had after reading this.    

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

From the vox link posted above...these are very scary times.  

After reading these particular paragraphs, it makes perfect sense why Putin would be trying to tip the political scales towards Trump in this election.  Trump has already said he may not honor NATO, depending on if that country has paid it's fair share or not.  A country like Estonia ($1.3M population) is a prime candidate for a country that has not paid it's fair share.  Putin's plans are obviously much bigger than swaying the US election, but it is one that could provide him with an out to destroy NATO and take back the former Soviet nations.  Just a (scary) thought I had after reading this.    

Yeah. I think the strange thing is that Russia has long now shifted into some pre1950 mentality while we continue to disregard their seriousness.

 

[Rove!]

Reading this thread now.....  

 

[HellToupee]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9168533/Mitt-Romney-Russia-is-Americas-number-one-geopolitical-foe.html

I really want to support this guy. But sometimes he makes it so damn difficult. Doesn't he realize that, as the man who will be the Republican nominee, his words have impact overseas?

We don't need to have Russia as our enemy. We would be much better off in the long run with Russia as our friend, for a whole variety of reasons. If Romney is elected he has created a big mess here which he will have to clean up. I figure he thinks he's Ronald Reagan, but he isn't, just as today's Russia is not the Soviet Union.

Tremendous . Simply tremendous.

 

[bueno]

Yet, Russia needs the West. How much oil and natural gas do they export to Western Europe? They need US dollars too - which means we have the opportunity to make them a trade partner - you usually don't go to war with a major trade partner.

 

[HellToupee]

Yet, Russia needs the West. How much oil and natural gas do they export to Western Europe? They need US dollars too - which means we have the opportunity to make them a trade partner - you usually don't go to war with a major trade partner.

We also have a mutual enemy in  radical Islam 

 

[BassNBrew]

LOL at Tim being all kids of wrong once again.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Today's meeting.

 

[moleculo]

Today's meeting.

Lol, did these guys just step off the scale or something?

 

[cstu]

Today's meeting.

Hey Vlad, get that link I sent you?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Hey is everybody on board now?

 

[Card Trader]

Hey is everybody on board now?

Well now that it is convenient for their political side, YEAH!!! It was downright ridiculous 4 years ago though, laughable even.

 

[DocHolliday]

Gonna need to see a lot of people apologizing to Mitt.

You will not see one apology. 

 

[Arsenal of Doom]

Russia still probably isn't our #1 geopolitical foe, though it depends on how you want to measure it.

In terms of global economic influence they clearly aren't (China), or most immediate danger to U.S. citizens abroad (ISIS). They also don't pose a conventional military threat to the U.S. or NATO as long as the U.S. is allied with the latter. Their economy is in shambles and Putin holds onto power in part because of the narrative of the West being aligned against Russia. Nationalism feeds off of nationalism. 

All that said, Putin is legit scary and there's a good reason he wanted Trump to win. What he really needs right now are sanctions to be eased and oil prices to climb, which are the only things that can help the Russian economy in the short term. Weakening NATO and reducing U.S. global influence are both key for his stated longer-term vision of reconstructing the U.S.S.R block of states. 

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Russia still probably isn't our #1 geopolitical foe, though it depends on how you want to measure it.

In terms of global economic influence they clearly aren't (China), or most immediate danger to U.S. citizens abroad (ISIS). They also don't pose a conventional military threat to the U.S. or NATO as long as the U.S. is allied with the latter. Their economy is in shambles and Putin holds onto power in part because of the narrative of the West being aligned against Russia. Nationalism feeds off of nationalism. 

All that said, Putin is legit scary and there's a good reason he wanted Trump to win. What he really needs right now are sanctions to be eased and oil prices to climb, which are the only things that can help the Russian economy in the short term. Weakening NATO and reducing U.S. global influence are both key for his stated longer-term vision of reconstructing the U.S.S.R block of states. 

Uoy forget the claim was Russia was just "regional", it wasn't even conceded they were geopolitical in nature.

Now allegedly they threaten our democracy. When did China ever do that?

 

[ren hoek]

Dan Senor is one of Romney's closest advisers on foreign policy. Since Paul Ryan has been selected as the GOP's vice presidential candidate, Senor has been traveling with Ryan-but today, he left the trail because of the "foreign policy developments" and is in Boston and NYC.

Senor is the former spokesman for the American government in Iraq (the Coalition Provisional Authority at the beginning of the Iraq war under George W. Bush) and is a particularly close adviser to Romney on the Middle East. (He has traveled with Romney to Israel three times, as well as written a book on Israel that Romney often cites). With Ryan, he consults on domestic and foreign policy issues.

Last month, the New York Times described Senor as an "advocate of neoconservative thinking that has sought to push presidents to the right for years on Middle East policy." Senor led a foreign policy briefing for Ryan on the plane yesterday from Seattle along with Jamie Fly, executive director, Foreign Policy Initiative and Reuel Marc Gerecht from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Romney keeps a large group of foreign-policy advisers, eight of whom participated in the early neoconservative group Project for a New American Century think tank, founded in 1997 and headed by William Kristol, the Nation's Ari Berman reported in May. In the same month, The New York Times' Magazine's David Sanger reported on discontent within that big team, with some complaining that Romney only listens to Bolton.

https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/whos-advising-mitt-romney-on-foreign-policy/#.UHXof71VtGI.email

When Mitt Romney emphasized that Russia was the US' #1 geopolitical foe, he was parroting neoconservative talking points.  "I am deeply honored to have the counsel of this extraordinary group of diplomats, experts, and statesmen. Their remarkable experience, wisdom, and depth of knowledge will be critical to ensuring that the 21st century is another American Century." 

 

[BassNBrew]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9168533/Mitt-Romney-Russia-is-Americas-number-one-geopolitical-foe.html

I really want to support this guy. But sometimes he makes it so damn difficult. Doesn't he realize that, as the man who will be the Republican nominee, his words have impact overseas?

We don't need to have Russia as our enemy. We would be much better off in the long run with Russia as our friend, for a whole variety of reasons. If Romney is elected he has created a big mess here which he will have to clean up. I figure he thinks he's Ronald Reagan, but he isn't, just as today's Russia is not the Soviet Union.

Guess this is why you’re a trump supporters

 

[Joe Summer]

Mitt was on the right track but he blew the delivery. He was trying to start another Red Scare in a post-9/11 environment.

 

[AAABatteries]

Think we can safely move this one to the PSF

@FBG Moderator

 

[Gr00vus]

... the constant pressure that Russia's putting on our European allies. The way that Russia is trying to move the boundaries of the post-World War II Europe. The way that he is trying to set European countries against one another, seizing territory, holding it in Crimea. Beginning to explore whether they could make some inroads in the Baltics.

We know that they are deeply engaged in supporting Assad because they want to have a place in the Middle East. They have a naval base, they have an air base in Syria. They want to hang on to that. I think what Secretary Carter is seeing, and I'm glad he is, is that we got to get NATO back working for the common defense. We've got to do more to support our partners in NATO, and we have to send a very clear message to Putin that this kind of belligerence, that this kind of testing of boundaries will have to be responded to. The best way to do that is to put more armor in, put more money from the Europeans in so they're actually contributing more to their own defense.

Yeah, I'm glad Mitt identified the above. Too bad someone who had identified these things the way he had wasn't running for President in 2016.

 

[mr. furley]

how did this age?

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Shouldn't this have been moved to The Test Forum?

 

[DocHolliday]

Can't believe it is back.  

 

[rockaction]

When I think of bumps, I think of lines. When I think of lines, I think of ties. Who has ties and lines to Russia, that country that should be our friend, not our #1 geopolitical foe? 

 

[HellToupee]

In hindsight this thread was comedy gold