This is how a Canadian views Obama.

Quote:On Thursday, Barack Obama was talking tough about Russia. His secretary of state, John Kerry, issued an ultimatum to Vladimir Putin. If Putin did not stop his troops massing on the Ukrainian border, “there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday.”

That’s what he said on Thursday.

On Friday, he capitulated. Kerry capitulated, that is. Not Putin.

On Friday, Kerry not only erased any threat he had made. He positively made concessions to Russia.

He said that Russia has “legitimate interests in Ukraine.”

As in, Russia legitimately has as say in a foreign, sovereign, independent country.

Kerry helpfully described those legitimate interests: “historical, cultural, current strategic. These are real interests. And I think all of us who are joined together in the EU and extended contact group understand those interest and are prepared to respect them.”

Neville Chamberlain himself wasn’t that speedy in giving his approval to Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia. And for the same reasons – ethnic, cultural and strategic claims of Germany.

It is true that there are some ethnic Russians in Ukraine. This is not an accident. After the Soviet Union enslaved Ukraine, Josef Stalin launched the world’s largest deliberate famine, called the Holodomor, that killed an estimated 7.5 million Ukrainians. Stalin also forcibly deported other ethnic groups, like the Tatars. And his policy of Russification – shipping in ethnic Russians to dominate political and business life – lingers on today. Not just in Ukraine, but all across the former Soviet Union, in places like Poland, Lithuania and Estonia.

Will John Kerry also “respect” Vladimir Putin’s “legitimate interests” in those foreign countries, too?

This is a spectacular submission by the United States. Spectacular because it was uttered just two days before a referendum in Crimea, part of Ukraine. The referendum question would make the Parti Quebecois jealous: neither option allows Ukrainians there to vote to stay in Ukraine.

The first choice is to outright join Russia. The second option is a bizarre, legally meaningless choice to adopt a defunct 1992 Ukrainian constitutional status for Crimea. Either choice destroys Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea.

It goes without saying the vote is rigged. The group that normally monitors elections in Europe – the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – isn’t even sending observers. They say the entire election is illegal from the start – they won’t dignify it with their presence. The ballot question is absurd. There are reports of ballots being shipped in, from Russia, with the “join Russia” option pre-checked. And of course there is the traditional Russian vote-rigging apparatus, from the censorship of opposition media to violence against opposition political leaders.

But John Kerry is happy to declare, even advance of such a fraud, that Vladimir Putin’s imperial interests are “legitimate.”

This is outrageous by any standard. But the standard in Ukraine is especially high, since in the 1990s Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for a specific American guarantee to protect them from Russian interference. It’s a written treaty. And now the world knows the value of an American promise, under Barack Obama.

This isn’t news, actually. Last year, the world saw Obama declare his intentions to attack Syria in response to Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons. At the last moment, Obama countermanded his own orders, handed the Syrian file to Putin – Assad’s arms dealer! – and Obama literally went golfing the same day.

This is the second Obama surrender to Putin in two years. Do you think it will be the last?

The world is watching and learning. Former Soviet colonies from the Baltics to Poland to Asia are watching and learning. Obama will not protect them.

Iran and North Korea are watching and learning. China is recalibrating its strategy regarding disputed islands claimed by Japan.

And Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia now know what Obama’s word is worth, too.

Obama will be president for another two years. America’s enemies will not let that go to waste.

Link

the mean looking one in the middle is john kerry

stop it, vladimir. that hurts. why are you so mean to me? I work hard, I clean the house, and I try to look nice for you.