The fecklessness of this administration knows no bounds

[Adam]

Most recently, we had the utterly ludicrous case of #hashtag diplomacy, which lasted all of about two days before the mockery became too much for even John Kerry to stand.

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That's right: live by the promise of hashtag. No, really. That's the official State Department stance on Russian aggression: live by the promise of hashtag. And the power of Greyskull.


This is your tax dollars at work.

Needless to say, the mockery has been quite delicious:

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But apparently that wasn't enough mockery to make the infants in the White House understand that the world exists outside of twitter.

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That's right: deranged African warlords, who are kidnapping children to a far-away forest and selling them into slavery, are going to suddenly be convinced that they should mend their ways because of a hashtag campaign.

Good grief. These people are genuinely delusional.

[Billy Jingo]

That's right: deranged African warlords, who are kidnapping children to a far-away forest and selling them into slavery, are going to suddenly be convinced that they should mend their ways because of a hashtag campaign.

Looks like an awareness campaign to me.

But I understand a negative response (outside of the generic ODS crap) to yet another social media movement.

[Adam]

Looks like an awareness campaign to me.

But I understand a negative response (outside of the generic ODS crap) to yet another social media movement.

If they ever did something other than awareness campaigns and other such hollow, empty gestures, then no one would have any problem with it. But that's just it: everything that this administration does in the name of their so-called foreign policy is hollow, empty symbolism, with the notable exception of being overtly hostile towards our allies. It's honestly just bizarre. We hit an overcharge button with Russia, and we stab Poland and the Czech Republic in the back. We tiptoe around on eggshells, careful not to offend Iran when they are killing their own people in the streets for the crime of wanting freedom, and we sell Egypt out on a reasonable and democratic election, touching off now three years' worth of very bloody internal strife. We coddle China and leave Japan twisting. When Russia engages in the most overt military aggression the world has seen in twenty years, we send hashtags. When three hundred children are kidnapped from a school to be sold into slavery by a bunch of al-Qaeda-related thugs, we effectively e-mail the captives pictures of our hands.

[Billy Jingo]

If they ever did something other than awareness campaigns and other such hollow, empty gestures, then no one would have any problem with it. But that's just it: everything that this administration does in the name of their so-called foreign policy is hollow, empty symbolism, with the notable exception of being overtly hostile towards our allies. It's honestly just bizarre. We hit an overcharge button with Russia, and we stab Poland and the Czech Republic in the back. We tiptoe around on eggshells, careful not to offend Iran when they are killing their own people in the streets for the crime of wanting freedom, and we sell Egypt out on a reasonable and democratic election, touching off now three years' worth of very bloody internal strife. We coddle China and leave Japan twisting. When Russia engages in the most overt military aggression the world has seen in twenty years, we send hashtags. When three hundred children are kidnapped from a school to be sold into slavery by a bunch of al-Qaeda-related thugs, we effectively e-mail the captives pictures of our hands.

I think Georgia circa 2008 was worse.

[Adam]

I think Georgia circa 2008 was worse.

I'm not so sure, at least in terms of just outright aggression. Georgia came of Georgia launching an attack on South Ossetia. They may or may not have been justified in doing so, but the Georgians struck first there, and the Russians came in and ended the fight. Not so in Crimea and Ukraine as a whole. Ukraine had a revolution, and Russia saw an opportunity to strike, claiming that they were protecting "ethnic Russians," but there was never any credible threat to "ethnic Russians" in Ukraine. There certainly was no strike against Russia or any Russian interests.

If you just want to stack up body counts and compare them, then yeah, lots more (at least so far) died and more general damage was done in Georgia. But in terms of just outright aggression and using an opportunity for a land-grab, I think that the Ukrainian situation is much worse.

[Norm dePlume]

South Ossetia wasn't a land grab?

[Adam]

South Ossetia wasn't a land grab?

It wasn't just a land-grab. There is more to it than that.

I'm not excusing Russia's behavior there, but the point is that Georgia started the aggression in that conflict. That was not the case in Crimea.

[Adam]

[Michele]

[Billy Jingo]

[Adam]