Obama calls off Congress vote

[eynon81]

[Professor]

[eynon81]

[Spider]

[Professor]

[Indy]

[Kane]

Meh, while I oppose action in Syria I think ridding Syria of Assad would deal a serious blow to Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. It's a significant achievement since it takes away Russia's one solid "in" within the region.

And Russia has a sane foreign policy? Hahahahahahahhahah

Russia has HUGE insurmountable internal issues and instead of correcting them they've:

-Doubled down on Gazprom and other commodity oligarchies suffering from rampant corruption and inefficiency by invoking state ownership and further consolidating them
-Completely ignored infrastructure development in an economy that's over half dependent on commodity exports for growth (Russia is the 2nd largest exporter of all commodities in the world)
-Have languishing lower level companies that can neither compete with outside actors or internal monopolies/oligopolies
-Are seeing reserves tank as exports become less and less competitive with the relative devaluation in several other nations
-Are losing geopolitical clout in Eastern Europe even after Ossetia because their grip on LNG is slipping with US development literally exploding

Russia's foreign policy as of late has been lots of grandstanding and exaggeration not out of strength but out of desperation. And Putin has been fomenting dissent within by clamping down on protests, refusing civil rights, and executing free press.

So no, Russia is not a standard by which any "sane" country should judge itself. Their foreign policy is a mess for a country with a $1 Trillion annual economy largely focused on finite resources and military sales. Oh yeah, military sales. Another reason why Russia desperately wants to hold onto Assad.

You guys are ridiculous.

[Kane]

[The Comrade]

[exploited]