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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

What Would TR Do?


   Ronald Reagan once said, “History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.” And of course, that is what Putin believes.  Obama has no balls, except for the ones he plays golf with.  So Crimea today, tomorrow Estonia or whoever.  Teddy Roosevelt said walk softly, carry a big stick.  Obama lectures loudly and won’t break a twig. 
    If TR were Prez, I would see him doing the following.  He’d say we have looked without results for that airliner from Malaysia and may never find it.  We know it went south into the Indian Ocean where there is no place to land.  Therefore, am ordering the aircraft carrier back to the Pacific.  He would park that sucker outside of Kamchatka peninsula, move a couple divisions to Alaska, and purposefully say very little else.  But this would tell the Russians that if they make a move to take over more territory, he will make a move on some part of Siberia.  It’s a lot farther from Kamchatka or Vladivostok to Moscow than it is to Anchorage.  And this would force the Russians to suddenly worry about an unguarded flank that is far from home.  Naw, you say, that would be so stupid since Eastern Siberia is a vast wilderness that would be hard to secure.  Yeah, but that means that there aren’t that many people there, let alone Russians.  Secondly, TR would have understood the numbers.  USA 313 million people, Russia 142 million.  USA GDP $15T, Russia $1.89T.  USA has a hardened military that has just fought 2 wars.  A potential fight with America wouldn’t be cheap.

    While it is true that USA’s military is about 1 million and Russia’s is also about that large, the Russian equipment is outdated and mostly 7000 miles away.

    Secondly, TR would move warships into the Baltic and AWACs too.  Thirdly, he would ask for  more Defense spending like Reagan did.  If Putin were smart, he would not want an arms race or to be a NATO target.  His country has a 0.6% growth rate and a negative birth/death rate.  He cannot win a cold war. He’d sue for peace and summitry.

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