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Eastern Europe not feeling the love from Obama

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LowRevs

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Sep 14 12:22 PM US/Eastern
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer

Czechs feel betrayed, Poles irked, Romanians slighted. Ask them who's to blame, and the answer may come as a surprise: President Barack Obama.
George W. Bush fawned over Eastern Europe, and its leaders rushed to join his post-9/11 "coalition of the willing." Now many—officials and ordinary citizens alike—are grumbling over what they perceive as the Obama administration's neglect.

It's a startling shift in a region long accustomed to cozy ties with the United States.
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Breitbart Article
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Being half Polish, I like to think that Lech Walessa brought down the USSR. These are all new democracies just broken away from the USSR and are in need of support both politically and economically. The benefit to the US over time of close democratic allies in eastern europe is huge. In such a short time the perception of these countries is beginning to be that they are being forgotten by the US. It is a shame to see their positive ratings of the US drop from 90% to 60%!
 
Bush courted E Europe and pissed off W Europe
Obama is focusing on W Europe and seems to be ignoring E Europe.

Can't please everyone :shrug:
 
**** East Europe, if they want to get some love they should organize around 50000 troops and help us over in Afghanistan. If not why the **** do we need them?
 
OxymoronP said:
**** East Europe, if they want to get some love they should organize around 50000 troops and help us over in Afghanistan. If not why the **** do we need them?
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Because they can go to the dark(Russian) side.
 
OxymoronP said:
**** East Europe, if they want to get some love they should organize around 50000 troops and help us over in Afghanistan. If not why the **** do we need them?
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The Poles did provide troops for Afghanistan. Don't know if they are still there.

Laila said:
Bush courted E Europe and pissed off W Europe
Obama is focusing on W Europe and seems to be ignoring E Europe.

Can't please everyone :shrug:
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That may be true but Western Europe are hopelessly socialist :lol:. Seriously, they have long standing governments and Eastern Europe are budding democracies who are already our strong allies. They are also more strategically located to our current strife.
 
LowRevs said:
That may be true but Western Europe are hopelessly socialist :lol:. Seriously, they have long standing governments and Eastern Europe are budding democracies who are already our strong allies. They are also more strategically located to our current strife.
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I disagree.
W Europe is more important international wise than E Europe.

UK stradles socialism and capitalism, as does many other european countries.
 
LowRevs said:
Being half Polish, I like to think that Lech Walessa brought down the USSR. These are all new democracies just broken away from the USSR and are in need of support both politically and economically. The benefit to the US over time of close democratic allies in eastern europe is huge.
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I agree and wouldn't be surprised if in 50 years Poland is a major player on the world stage. The people are highly educated and skilled and I'll bet determined to make their country great again.
 
LowRevs said:
That may be true but Western Europe are hopelessly socialist :lol:.
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As in America, many people in Western Europe have succumbed to learned helplessness. They no longer believe they are in control of their own destiny - they'd rather blame others for their faults than step up, or use government to control those who they view as incapable of caring for themselves.
 
Taylor said:
As in America, many people in Western Europe have succumbed to learned helplessness. They no longer believe they are in control of their own destiny - they'd rather blame others for their faults than step up, or use government to control those who they view as incapable of caring for themselves.
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And how do you know 'what we believe'? And what helplessness?
 
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Laila said:
I disagree.
W Europe is more important international wise than E Europe.

UK stradles socialism and capitalism, as does many other european countries.
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What is "international wise"? Granted we need to pay homage to our current and longtime (since WWII) Western Europe allies, but I like to plan for the future. Eastern Europe has a rich, industrious past which was temporarily squashed by socialism. It's free again, and we should do what we can to see that it flourishes.

Not UK's health care. I don't personally know anything about it but what I've heard isn't good.
 
LowRevs said:
What is "international wise"? Granted we need to pay homage to our current and longtime (since WWII) Western Europe allies, but I like to plan for the future. Eastern Europe has a rich, industrious past which was temporarily squashed by socialism. It's free again, and we should do what we can to see that it flourishes.

Not UK's health care. I don't personally know anything about it but what I've heard isn't good.
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Alot of the power in Europe is in the hand of those in W Europe.
European Union which many E European countries are in is dominated by three major players. Britain, Germany and France.

Interesting, everything i have heard about US's system is just as bad.
 
While I agree that Eastern European countries are important allies, what Bush was doing was thumbing Russia by courting these countries so heavily. U.S. relations with these nations should include security (reasonable), not the shoot in the dark missile shield, trade, and aid as needed and deserved. To continuously hold a Cold War mindset and play chess with Russia, using Eastern European nations as pawns accomplishes nothing but to dump money into a region and cause needless tension with Russia, who would be a willing ally themselves. So a smarter approach that includes Russian imput and treats the Ruskies as a member rather than an evil enemy is much preferred than the approach of the past.
 
Laila said:
And how do you know 'what we believe'? And what helplessness?
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http://www.libdems.org.uk/www.libdems.org.uk/

We need to equip today's and tomorrow's young people with the skills and education to prosper in future, not leave them unable to escape from the circumstances of their birth
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Young people looking for a job would not go more than three months without a right of access to a place in work, training, or education, under plans unveiled by Liberal Democrat Leader
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It is about ensuring that all of us are able to buy the goods and obtain the services we need
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provide 20 hours per week free childcare
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allow everyone to request flexible working patterns and to inject some realism into the media’s portrayal of women, instead of the suggestion that nothing less than perfection will do.
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our policies for nineteen months shared parental leave and twenty hours of free quality childcare for all children from eighteen months
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etc.
etc.
 
:rofl

Lib Dems? The insignificant and ignored third party? o_O
 
LowRevs said:
The Poles did provide troops for Afghanistan. Don't know if they are still there.



That may be true but Western Europe are hopelessly socialist :lol:. Seriously, they have long standing governments and Eastern Europe are budding democracies who are already our strong allies. They are also more strategically located to our current strife.
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The Poles have about 2,000 troops in Afghanistan as apart of ISAF. They announced they were pulling out of the Iraqi coalition about a month after the 2004 debates when Bush told Kerry We still got Poland.
 
PogueMoran said:
The Poles have about 2,000 troops in Afghanistan as apart of ISAF. They announced they were pulling out of the Iraqi coalition about a month after the 2004 debates when Bush told Kerry We still got Poland.
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Iraq is in the process of being turned over to the Iraqis. Rightly so. It wasn't occupied any longer than say Japan or Germany. I've just come upon the information on a TV discussion on CNN that Poland and Czechoslovakia both have troops in Afghanastan. Haven't been able to verify it though.

I'm not so quick to criticize the strategic decisions of the administration. Their knowledge and information sources are so far greater than mine. I did think that such a contentious thing as placing missles so close to Russia even if defensive was a bit provocative when they could easily be placed elsewhere. At the time though there had been some provocation from the Russians going on.
 
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