Sen. Feinstein: The U.S. Is Now At Cold War Levels With Russia -- National Journal
"Putin, you have to man up," Feinstein told CNN's Candy Crowley.
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein thoroughly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in empowering Ukraine's pro-Russian separatists during an interview with CNN on Sunday, largely laying the blame at his feet for the downing last week of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet.
Regardless of Putin's level of involvement in the plane crash, Feinstein said U.S. relations with Russia had dipped to a new low.
When asked by CNN's Candy Crowley for if U.S.-Russia relations were now "at Cold War levels," Feinstein did not hesitate. "Yes," the California Democrat replied.
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My Comment: I lived during the Cold War .... this is not the Cold War .... not even close.
11 comments:
I know it not as bad as it was before, but we are getting there. The US have said that they shall send CIA invastigators to the crash-site of the passanger plane in Ukraine and if the pro-Russians attack them then there wil truly be hell.
Consider the source.
Diane Feintein is not completely I competent, but one has too wonder how competent she is.
Her 1990s gun ban picked out guns to ban based on "cosmetic" looks. she was seen paging through a copy of "Shotgun News" (I think that as the name) magazine picking out guns to ban.
I do know she is an art thief,she has artwork on loan form a museum. I wonder if the rest of us can get that deal.
Rhaegar,
WNU is right we're not even close to old "Cold War". Things got very dicey several times and the outcome would have made what's going on now forgotten footnotes of history.
There is news of your homeland Norway though, apparently the Longstone of Engeløya was knocked down by a weed eater and now the government of Norway is going to sue itself over the matter. Also and you should be aware of this danger, Norway has decided to lift it's ban on segways releasing this scourge upon humanity.
Aizino,
Feinstein is a dolt of the first order.
Rhaegar,
If the US sends (ahem) the CIA to Ukraine, and if they are attacked by the pro-Russian guys, you can expect a shock and awe hash tag campaign from the State Department and Obama imposing crushing sanctions on Russian Oligarch's pets and the import of borscht products to the US.
WNU,
Would you have believed 30+ years ago the two of us with our backgrounds would be sharing our impressions of what the world is today, in the manner that we do. When I put serious consideration to it, it just seems astounding.
The norwegian politicians are very difficult to understand. We in Norway have 2 big partyes (AP in english Workers party and Høyre in english Right. and several small ones. They all do the things same but we have 4 "radical partyes. Red a Communistic party with Marxist-lennist and SV roots. SV in english Socialist Left a more "exstreme version of AP with communistic tendensies. The norwgian communist party with is very small and the Norwegian envirement party who dosent want to maintein our roads since they are bad for the envirement. All the political parties are very burecratic. So the longstone case will probably be dropped since thats how the burecraticy have influenced the police. Its a common problem in Norway that "small cases like thievery from homes are dismissed because of not enouth evidence when you even have caught the thief on video stealing somthing it even gets dropped them. And we are known for our stupid bans. We and North Korea are the only cointries banning profetional boxing. We altso have banned the use of pin firework rocets so if i want to use those i must celebrate in Sweden. Thats my rant about some of the politic in Norway. Here is one of the redicolus cases today:http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/varsler-fikk-beskjed-om-aa-ringe-113/a/23257017/ Thats a problem with our offical health care. Its in Norwegian in our biggest newspaper VG you can use google translate to translate it to english. Havent used a segway but its not good for the psycical health. its a growing problem in Norway we are way to inactive.
30+ years ago I wanted to live in California .... making wine in NAPA valley. :)
But in all fairness .... 30+ years ago I was the oddball in the foreign office in Moscow when I was a young intern .... given a privileged job that I did not want. I always loved American culture, the language, it's free market system, and it's history .... thoughts that were considered heresy in Russia during the height of the Cold War. But I was never booted out because of family and their contacts .... and also because I was almost always right in predicting U.S. political trends. Case in point (I am bragging now) .... I wrote a paper outlining why Ronald Reagan would be a great President and how his election would re-shape U.S. - Soviet relations to an unprecedented level .... I wrote that paper as an intern when he was running against Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primary race.
Needless to say .... I was used as the "poster child" for about 3 years on how not to do an analysis on the American political system. But .... Reagan's return and election in 1980 changed everything ... especially for me.
30+ years later .... the web and social media has opened up everything .... and the world is rushing to embrace some concept of a global consciousness. We are now sharing our intellect, opinions, our intelligence, and our views of life. We are now even using the web to find a future wife or husband.
As for little me .... I have been offered numerous positions to work in a few think tanks in Moscow .... I was even offered a "non-paying" post to work for Foreign Policy in Washington D.C. a few years back. But I am now a Canadian .... and I love where I am right now .... I am beholden to no one, and I have my freedom .... in thought and in body. And as for WNU .... I love doing this blog ... to share what I know .... and (of course) to receive feedback from all of you.
Is all of this astounding .... definitely. And we can only wonder what the next 30+ years will hold.
WNU-
What is your take on why the US is so heavily invested in the Kiev government, to the extent that US-Russia relations have been completely torpedoed? I am a tiny minority in the US but I feel that the US and EU went to far encroaching on Russia's vital national interests by helping to foment the Maidan rebellion, and should not be surprised at all by the outcome of Crimea being seized and the current civil war. My question is: why is the US doing this? Are we bound and determined to destroy every Russian sphere of influence outside its internal territory? I see this situation as tragic, as I feel there is no reason the US and Russia need to be enemies.
Good question Black Knight. When all of this started to go to hell in February I warned about this .... and I was critical on how the U.S. was interfering in the internal politics of Ukraine without realizing the ethnic and historical context of the country. Case in point .... the eastern part of the country is predominantly Russian .... and they have been there as a people for centuries .... and in some places even before the Vikings discovered North America 1,000 years ago. They are independent, proud, and tough .... with a long long long history of war and conflict. But when the interim government took over in Kiev .... and (with the backing of the U.S.) declared that they would ban Russian .... that opened the floodgates to the mess that we are witnessing today. The people in eastern Ukraine do not want to be told what to do .... especially when it comes to language and culture. Unfortunately .... when the interim government in Kiev realized what they had done ... and rescinded their Russian ban .... it was too late .... the damage had already been done.
As to U.S. involvement .... it is about money, oil, pipelines, and who will dominate the energy markets in this part of the world. Dr Nafeez Ahmed for the Guardian has a good post that explains all of this. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/06/ukraine-crisis-great-power-oil-gas-rivals-pipelines
Ukraine's shale deposits are also potentially enormous .... worth billions of dollars .... but the problem is that these deposits are located in Donetsk and Luhansk .... the two regions where this civil war is now raging.
Interestingly .... the Biden family also has a direct financial interest in this conflict .... V.P. Joe Biden's youngest son sits on a company that is to develop and benefit from these resources. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/08/ukrainian-energy-firm-hires-biden-son-as-lawyer/
Hmmm .... talk about a conflict of interest.
Looks like you have nailed it then. The US and the EU want to undermine Gazprom's and Russia's monopoly on gas in the region and develop the Ukrainiain shale oil themselves. Money at the bottom, as usual. And as usual, no good or bad but just opposing economic interests. Too bad the US didn't figure out a way to profit from Iraqi oil during and after our pointless and extremely expensive invasion and occupation. Maybe then we would not have had to pick a fight with Russia over Ukrainian gas.
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