Sophomoric peer pressure: Lawmakers call for G8 suspension of Russia

Dana Davidson
CNN
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 01:11 UTC

As the crisis in Ukraine escalates, with Russian troops moving into the Crimean peninsula on Saturday, U.S. lawmakers are pushing for decisive action against Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the violence in the region and respect Ukraine's independence.

Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Sens. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, made the case for congressional sanctions and a suspension of Russian membership in the G8 and G20.

Obama's warning

Graham, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said there needs to be more than threats coming from the White House, and called President Barack Obama "weak and indecisive" on matters of foreign policy.

Comment: Wow, and he doesn't have a vested interest at all. Christ Almighty, he's on the Armed Services Comittee, of course he wants more than threats. Three words: Military Industrial Complex ... Kickbacks.

Wait, that's four words.

"No. 1, stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators - it is not your strong suit. Every time the President goes on national television and threatens Putin or someone like Putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine," Graham said.

Comment: Wow. Sick burn. Not that we disagree with him. But our eyes roll when any politician says anything at all. The only time a politician tells the truth is when he's ordering at the drive thru.

"How about this: Suspend Russian membership in the G8 and the G20, at least for a year, starting right now. And for every day they stay in the Crimea, add to the suspension. Do something," he added.

Comment: Brer Fox leapt out of the bushes and strolled over to Brer Rabbit. "Well, well, what have we here?" he asked, grinning an evil grin.

Brer Rabbit gulped. He was stuck fast. He did some fast thinking while Brer Fox rolled about on the road, laughing himself sick over Brer Rabbit's dilemma.

"I've got you this time, Brer Rabbit," said Brer Fox, jumping up and shaking off the dust. "You've sassed me for the very last time. Now I wonder what I should do with you?"

Brer Rabbit's eyes got very large. "Oh please, Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

Durbin: U.S. needs to 'draw a line'

International pressure on Russia mounted as leaders from the EU and the UK joined an international outcry over the escalation of violence in the region. On the domestic front, Durbin and Graham said that there are actions Congress can take to show Putin his use of military force is unacceptable.

"We've got to make it clear to Putin that if there are Russian-speaking people on the soil of another nation, that doesn't give him license to invade, to protect them when there is no obvious threat against them," Durbin said. "What Congress has to do, what the Senate has to do quickly is a resolution condemning what Putin has done."

The Illinois Democrat said that Russia's "charm offensive," dumping billions of dollars into the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, has done little to redefine the nation's image among Western nations.

Comment: Oh dear God. Really, Sochi is a consideration here? Why does this smack of Keeping Up With the Joneses?

"That Sochi charm offensive died on the streets of Sevastopol (Ukraine) when he moved in thousands of troops days after the closing ceremony. He is trying to have it both ways," Durbin said. "We've got to make him feel like there is a price to pay for this kind of conduct."

Graham said the U.S. needs to make clear to countries surrounding Russia its resolve to take action against Putin and accelerate the admission of neighboring countries, like Georgia and Moldova, into NATO.

"I would like to create a democratic noose around Putin's Russia," Graham said.

Comment: Wow. Seriously? A democratic noose!? When did democracy become militarized, when did it become a weapon? Oh, that's right. No sane person can miss the explicit psychopathy in this statement. They can only think in a clauswitzian manner. Everything becomes a method of violently submitting others to your will.

Graham: 'Iranians are watching'

How the U.S. handles the situation developing in Russia is key to the Obama administration's credibility in other international crises like the ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, he said.

"The Iranians are watching. If we do not decisively push back and make them weaker and all of our friends in the region stronger, the Iranians are going to misunderstand, yet again, (that) we mean it regarding their nuclear program," Graham said.

Comment: This is straight out of Machiavelli's The Prince. It was the mainstay political strategy of Rome, RE: Phillip of Macedon, Antiochus, etc. It's pretty obvious what their grand move here was. They wanted to 1) "liberate" Ukraine from Russia and 2) make her beholden to the IMF, and 3) fence them in Europe.

Iran is in the process of rolling back parts of its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions as a part of a temporary agreement to curb the country's nuclear ambitions appears. Talks between international leaders continue to forge a long-term agreement.

"So much is at stake," Graham added. "Putin is on the wrong side of history. He is on the wrong side of the law. Make him pay a price. The Ukrainian people are dying for their freedom - I hope we will stand with them."

Comment: You see, none of this is gonna make much sense unless you translate this to a situation that you have had experience with, or could have experience with. Nations, and the agreements between them, are a bit like a Homeowners Association. Each nation is a house, and groups of nations are blocks. So there's the North American Block, and the European Block, and so on.

Russia is a house next to another one called Ukraine. Russia has rented a room in the Ukrainian house, and part of the Russian family has moved in there. The mother in the Ukrainian house recently divorced her husband, and on the rebound has shacked up with an abusive psychopath. So the dad from the Russia house has sent a couple of his sons over to the room rented in the Ukrainian house to protect his other kids who are sub-letting the room from the Ukrainian Mom who now has the abusive psychopathic boyfriend who's taken over.

At this point, the Homeowners Association is the G8, and the Neighborhood Watch is NATO.

The American House has been strong-arming people for the last 13 years and buying up property like mad, breaking into peoples houses, beating up families, and extorting protection money. On the European Block, the English, French, Spanish, and German houses represent the 'oldtime money' people on the block, they flip-flop back and forth based on their own self interest and a hypocritical sense of noblesse oblige, and plain old inbred recalcitrance.

Now the Ukrainian house is on a big plot of land that borders all the well-moneyed European Block people, and they (the Europeans) covet it for themselves.

The greedy American House has a long-standing grudge against the Russian House - Daddy Russia and Daddy America don't like each other - and this is exacerbated by the fact that Daddy Russia just got a new car, has hit the gym, and is mowing the yard shirtless and showing off. Also, Daddy Russia's latest Christmas Lights Display (Sochi) was way better than Daddy America's.

It turns out that the America House got the Ukrainian House's Daddy drunk and paid a woman of ill-repute to lay next to him while he was passed out to get some incriminating photos which he showed to Momma Ukraine to get her to leave him, and then took her out on the town and hooked her up with the psycho boyfriend as part of a plot to get back at Daddy Russia.

The European Block got wind of this, and coveting the land owned by the Ukrainian House, decided to support the play tentatively (they may turn at any moment when things go south).

So that is where we are at. Daddy America, out of spite, tried to pull a fast one. The Self-Interested Europeans backed it, but Daddy Russia wasn't fooled. Now that they've been caught out, and Daddy Russia isn't backing down, it's time to make as much noise as possible to cover up the fact that America failed to achieve its goal, got caught with its hand in the cookie jar, and Daddy Russia is giving them a big wedgie for it.