The Game In The Ukraine Putin Puts Obama To Shame

     As a great believer in the lessons that history is replete with, the news out of the Ukraine is pretty eye-opening. Putin is certainly no shoe pounding peasant at the U.N.; on the contrary he in addition to being ruthless would appear to be a very observant man--maybe his years at the KGB honed that skill. Just looking at the missteps of the U.S. under Obama in Benghazi, Syria, and Iran would bring any leader with any degree of intelligence to believe that this former community organizer is mostly rhetoric. We are now watching a potential occupation of Ukraine, a country, at least in the western portion welcomed the Wehrmacht with flowers, bread and salt, and actually carried on armed struggle against the Red Army despite overwhelming odds until 1953.
      Trying to find a silver lining in this mess other than the fact that Obama cannot run again, is that given the gutting of the U.S. military and the duration of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he inherited, a Cuban Missile like crisis is simply not in the cards. One can only hope that in the waning time as Commander in Chief he develops a backbone and spends more time on maintaining and improving a credible military and less time trying to fundamentally remake this country. Last words in prose. Mr. President if you lie to your own people, what credibility do you have when you make solemn oaths to your foes, at least this time omitting your idiotic "period"? Zero, squat, nada, zip or in a word for zero Putin knows "nul". Muse comments follow
Costs, What Costs In Ukraine

When nonfiction moves into the realm of fiction one might feel a chill

No longer characters of words and grammar but flesh and blood humans to kill

Fiction has a plot and the endgame usually well disguised

Well done and it’s a only a late night reading with sleepy eyes

If it’s a Clancy novel, you know at a cost, the good guys should prevail
The forces of evil and darkness against courage are doomed to fail
The readers will not go down in flames they will survive
Only way to keep the author’s best selling streak alive
From the Ukraine it looks like Putin in the ending in Command Authority did not believe
But the beginning in the Ukraine, like ripe, low hanging fruit he knew he could achieve
Obama is not a Ryan, never has and never will
Only rhetoric from an overused till
Thousands upon thousands of Russian troops on the border of Ukraine
The Syrian Red Line crossed and U.S. resolve down the drain
2,000 Russian troops have already landed and two airports seized
Another bridgehead in the Crimea from which Russians will not want to leave
The signs were all there that even the Sochi Olympics could not conceal
With the Games at an end only a question of time before into Kiev Russians to wheel
One would have thought that Hagel would have had a shred of foresight to defense cuts delay
Cutting back force levels to pre World War II, a signal Russia could have its way
Russian boots on the ground and our President after silence of 9 days
Solemnly announces there will be costs as if another Red Line will Putin somehow sway
More ethnic Russians in the Crimea will soon protest in the streets
Seeking salvation from injustice, just wanting more Russian liberators to greet
Sounds like the crisis in the Sudeten Land 1938 sadly repeated
Lacking only Kerry with Putin’s signature waving “a chance of war defeated”
Like Britain on the eve of World War II with an army looking like the Light Brigade
Hoping against all hope that the Russian Bear will not into the rest of Ukraine invade
Or to save bullets, Putin does not turn off the pipeline spigot and for land then trades
Or a real nightmare for the West to seal Putin’s  fait accompli
Demands a plebiscite on independence for the Crimea so its residents are free
Russia is far too experienced in the Great Game
To think Obama’s weak warning will shame
The Crimea with a majority of Russians residing there would vote to with Russia reunite
With billions looted by its former President, the Ukraine will be hard to upright
The EU and yes the US will need to up the aid ante to that economy to restore
To increase while Russian troops stay in the Crimea to buy not less gas but more
This is a series of wake up calls that Obama has failed heed
The sprouting of US decline as our military goes into decay, goes into seed
Lambasting the Russians over gay rights is noble but does nothing to bring peace to the map
The cuts announced by Hagel should be shelved, should be immediately scrapped
The carrot of keeping Russia in G8 as a member not a guest
Dangled with a stick of increased military might Russian forays slow or arrest
Although the Ukrainians welcomed the Wehrmacht and fought the Reds until 53
Massive arm shipments to them or advisers on the ground is not where today we can be
© March 1, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet