Here’s where it gets you:
Russia on Saturday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down hours after a reported government massacre in Homs emboldened Western powers to push for a vote despite Moscow’s objections.
China joined Russia in voting against the resolution, as both countries did with a weaker resolution condemning violence in Syria in October.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier in the day that pressing ahead with a vote on Saturday would be “a scandal.” Instead Moscow proposed a slew of new amendments to the resolution.
Among them was a call for peaceful demonstrators to disassociate from “armed groups.” The changes also stripped details of human-rights violations by the government, such as torture, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of children.
It sure would be easier for Bashar al-Assad’s goons to machine gun peaceful protestors if they aren’t around those who could shoot back.
The PRC and Russian regimes have proven themselves friends to tyrants and enemies of the people.
It’s a pretty small club.
Both Russia and the People’s Republic are tyrannies themselves. That type sticks together. Particularly so if the people they support seem to be a thorn in our side.
Life is pretty damn cheap in those places. Especially when it comes to those unable to defend themselves….
The more things change…
I’ve long thought the UN has ceased to be useful to us. I’d love to see us send a GS-1 to the UNSC to vote no on everything, and give them an annual check for 1/3 of whatever China’s giving.
It’s time to set up an invitation-only body dedicated to defending and promoting democracy around the world. One that recognizes that totalitarian regimes are not sovereign.
If the members of the body agree to trade only among themselves, that would be grand. The Red Chinks have risen to where they are because of us, and now we worry about them and their stupidity in the name of sovereignty.
Has anyone heard anything from Joe in Cali lately? He’s been absent from the Castle as well.
We don’t have to trade only amongst ourselves. In fact, our trade with China helps smooth diplomatic relations. China has risen to where it is because they have over 1 billion people and nuclear weapons. Their reliance on the West as a market for their goods gives us leverage over them short of nuclear threats. Yes, it would hurt to lose the capital investment made in China, but if there’s one thing this planet isn’t short of it’s unskilled labor. China, on the other hand, would have to deal with the millions of people who would no longer be employed making things for Apple. Who has the bigger problem?
when I say “rise” I don’t think I’m talking about the same thing you are. They are where they are for two reasons, plenty of unskilled labor and our government has been stupid enough to make it hard for industry in this country. The trade imbalance is something they have done their best to maintain as it is funding their military rise. Trade with us dwarfs their trade with the rest of the world.
“Trade with us dwarfs their trade with the rest of the world.”
And that gives us leverage against them. Their policies have also forced them to push their economy into a very unstable state. I’m not worried about China. We are the world champions at economic judo. Hell, we’ve had the President doing everything he can, short of nuking a major city, to kill the economy and we’re still getting ~2% growth.
If you think we are seeing real economic growth, I’ll leave you to to your delusions. It has been known for many years that the FedGov has been cheating on its statistics, and that includes labor statistics as well.
I believe you have mentioned before we should only trade amongst “peer” nations and with that you are 100% dead on.
You idea for an international organisation for defending and promoting democracy etc is good. Unfortunately no one has the cojones to actually set one up.
our government has been stupid enough to make it hard for industry in this country.
Um, no, our gov’t just helped the greedy corporate scheisskopfs outsource the jobs that support the middle class.
If you look at the business environment in this country since Nixon signed the NEPA, and create the EPA by executive fiat, along with the both parties playing with the tax code, and refusing to deal with the increasing problems created by unions, you will see much of the reason people may start here, but quickly find that staying here is a losing proposition.
It’s easy to blame the manure heads for reacting to a bad situation. To look at the reasons for their reactions takes a bit more doing.
I think we should trade with anyone willing. However, I do think that one economic role of government is to protect common goods, and that we should use trade policy to prevent off-shoring their destruction. On the gripping hand, I can’t see any way to use trade policy to offset costs of environmental protection in this country without opening ourselves to a trade war with Europe because we refuse to join their climate change cult.
If your job can be done by someone who just fell off the daikon truck you have no business being in the middle class.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16864893
Maybe Hillary needs to get out her Reset Button.
I really hope no one put money on the U.S.S., er ‘scuze me, Russia and China supporting the resolution. If they did, tell me how to find them because I have a ski chalet in Kansas that I’d like to sell them.
Shoot back indeed.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.
I think that Russia and the PRC have made a very bad mistake. The uprising in Syria is not going to go away, and it will likely escalate into a bloodbath like Libya or worse. Obama won’t ride to the rescue there because he would be alone and the election is too near, so they won’t be able to point to foreign support from the West. Of course, it is tough for tyrants like them to speak up for the rights of the people when they are hearing footsteps behind them at home.
How’s that “Reset Button” looking now?
I’ve never been accused of being brilliant, but I just don’t see what advantage Moscow gets out of riding this crippled-ass horse in Damascus.
I see no advantage either, but their foreign policy in the ME hasn’t been much better than ours of late.
If Russia is the King of the North referred to in Old Testament prophecy, then they will find themselves drawn into things they would be much better off watching.
Answered by Jim Dunnigan: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20120205.aspx
The US supports the Saudis, who are behind most of the Islamist mischief in the ME, if not the world (15 of 19 on 911). Libya and Egypt have already fallen. If Syria falls, Jordan will be next. So the pan-Arabist dream will come true, except it will be under green banners, rather than the nationalist/socialist ones. Israel must be thrilled at the prospect of another 1948.
Yes, it seems the lines between good and evil are clearly drawn.
That was us up until a while ago. That was the Cold War. We were pretty damned ruthless executing our state policy.
I think the NYT covered it in some detail but they are not a trustworthy source of information. Some of us were there. Not me. I was never in Persia or anywhere in Central or South America and pretty much avoided Africa south of Kenya.
That was the secret war.
I thought what happened in Bahrain was OK. The whole ‘we’re going to move on the palace as a mob scene so needed to be gunned down.’
Heartbeat. So went Musadeg, Allende, Samoza, that ratbag in Cuba, etc. Argentina made the killers vanish while Cambodia accommodated them much to their loss. Look at Peru and the vanishment of the Shining Path. The IRA and PROVOS.
Some people need to be treated like rabid dogs.
My big problem with Syria is Iran. Russia has a dog in this fight only because of their naval base there
at Latakia.-Which used to be part of Turkey until the dismembement of the Ottomans after WW1. I see things getting intresting as Iran jumps in further if we go
into a shooting war. Russia gets pulled in then we got blonde blue-eyed Syrian AF pilots flying Sukhois.
August,1939..
“It sure would be easier for Bashar al-Assad’s goons to machine gun peaceful protestors if they aren’t around those who could shoot back.” The flip side is equally true, it is much easier to get away with machine gunning armed groups when there aren’t a bunch of unarmed peaceful protestors getting in the way. After all, that’s the part that gets them all the unwanted international attention.
[...] The problem is that unstable countries drag down the rest of the region. An “army” stripped of leadership and state controls becomes an armed mob. Terrorists and extremist find recruits from those on both sides who feel they’ve got nothing to lose. Syria HAS WMD’s and Scud missiles. Who’s watching them? And who the frak is watching Iran? Not Russia or China. [...]
Exactly-I’d like to know what is stored in the
Bekkah Valley..
Do note that Syria’s substantial and ancient Christian population is likely to suffer a fate worse than the Egyptian Copts should Assad be driven from power. The Christians are largely supportive of Assad’s regime, because the alternative is an Islamist state that is still hostile to the US and will persecute and assault the Christian population with gleeful abandon.
Islamists in Turkey are funding and arming the insurgents in Syria (and also protecting them). And even if Assad is ousted, that doesn’t mean Iran’s influence will decrease. Either way, islamists will take over Syria, and we’ll have another extremist islamic country to deal with. I am amazed how little coverage and discussion Turkey’s support for this overthrow of the Syrian regime has gotten.
Sometimes, the alternative to evil is an even worse evil.