"command Authority"

[Thordaddy]

I just finished reading "Command Authority" I suppose it's Tom Clancy's last full novel . The parallels between it and the current happenings in Ukraine are absolutely prophetic.

We here in the complacent west underestimate the desire of Russia to re-establish the same exact empire as the former USSR ruled over, the defeat of "communism" didn't extinguish Russian imperialism ,especially when their leaders are former KGB. Same shit ,different flag.

I highly recommend this book , and while at it if ya don't quite come to the sense of the overwhelming evil that has gripped Russia for a century since the evil of the Czars was displaced, I recommend "Harvest of Sorrow" http://www.amazon.com/The-Harvest-Sorrow-Collectivization-Terror-Famine/dp/0195051807

a book that chronicles how the Soviets literally starved 7 million Ukrainians to death because they resisted collectivizing their land WHILE American newspapers extolled the virtue of Stalin and his "wonderful" reforms.

This BS is why I watched ZERO not one minute of Putins Olympics, NO WAY I was going to watch the exposition of how Putin robbed his country to put up a facade of fake prosperity. People in his country went hungry and cold while he drained money into his fantasy Olympic village.

Putin is an international criminal in the literal sense.

 

[LesBaker]

I have the feeling that Putin is considered a gangster type by most of the first worlds leaders.

From what I've read about how much he swiped from the Olympic funding his citizens paid for.......well he should be tried and jailed just for that.

Oh well.......the beat goes on.

 

[bluecoconuts]

From my understanding Putin is considered more of a joke on the international community, he tries very hard to be relevant but the truth is he's really not. The most attention he gets is probably from our cable news networks trying to use him to make Obama seem weak. Which is assanine because the rest of the world know that he's trying to repair the American image... but they also know he's got a list of people (terrorists) to kill delivered to him and he picks which ones die. Putin doesn't have that.


Steering back on topic, I need to read the book, I've heard good things about it, and I've always enjoyed his work.

 

[RamFan503]

From my understanding Putin is considered more of a joke on the international community, he tries very hard to be relevant but the truth is he's really not. The most attention he gets is probably from our cable news networks trying to use him to make Obama seem weak. Which is assanine because the rest of the world know that he's trying to repair the American image... but they also know he's got a list of people (terrorists) to kill delivered to him and he picks which ones die. Putin doesn't have that.


Steering back on topic, I need to read the book, I've heard good things about it, and I've always enjoyed his work.

That's an interesting spin and I really can't just let it go.

Any leader of Russia is going to be taken seriously and not considered a joke. A thug of sorts? Sure. He is a wildcard in many international dealings and that alone makes him relevant. The oil market is very much affected by Russian politics. The workings of European politics is very much affected by Russian politics. Their increasing socio-economic relationship with China gets them plenty of attention and deservedly so. But discounting it as an attempt to make Obama look weak is pretty rich. From what I read and see, Obama's administration is doing a very good job of that itself. And "repairing" the American image is a tired mantra that simply isn't happening. So we can blow him off as an irrelevant gangster but in the mean time, he is playing on our government's ineffectiveness and putting together quite an international clique.

 

[Thordaddy]

I don't think the people of Ukrain especially the Crimean Peninsula think the Russian military massing the world's second strongest military on their borders is a joke.
Facts are facts regardless how they make anyone look, I started this thread for the information of readers, unfortunately it was turned political ,I regret that ,and won't engage the partisanship. The fact is Russia still yearns to regain it's empire and IS the most dangerous threat to global peace at this moment.
Last post in the thread.

 

[RamFan503]

Yeah - I'll leave it alone too.

 

[bluecoconuts]

I wasn't saying that the leader of Russia was a joke, but Putin as a person is a bit of a joke. He's not a wildcard in any means, he's a rational actor, and thus predictable. At least on an international scope. I'll leave it at that, I have my reasons why I think what I think, and you have yours, and there's no need to get into it here for the 100th time.

Funny enough politics isn't even my main point of study, most people don't believe me when I tell them.

 

[Lunchbox]

Thanks for the rec TD. I've always been a big fan of Clancy's novels, have most of them in hardcover. All are well worth a read if just for the technical accuracy his books are known for but he really knows how to tell a story too. This sounds like a good one.

 

[RamFan503]

Thanks for the rec TD. I've always been a big fan of Clancy's novels, have most of them in hardcover. All are well worth a read if just for the technical accuracy his books are known for but he really knows how to tell a story too. This sounds like a good one.

Ah - cool. Back on topic. Thanks Lunch.

 

[Thordaddy]

Thanks for the rec TD. I've always been a big fan of Clancy's novels, have most of them in hardcover. All are well worth a read if just for the technical accuracy his books are known for but he really knows how to tell a story too. This sounds like a good one.

Yer very welcome LB, it's a good book and like I said the parallels are spooky.
Europe is a continent that just keeps having to re-learn and re-learn and re-learn why pacifism only works if you don't have anything someone else wants,if you DO you better be ready to defend it or lose it.

 

[Ramhusker]

Yeah, Clancy sure could spin a tangled web. (And Socialism sucks)