Charlie Rose

jason  07/26/2012 11:27 PM Report

WE are World Police. Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria... all the way to Iran, to Russia, to China (i forgot, we already patrol the waters off coast of China with our 7th Fleet). bottom line, we need to "secure" every place worldwide except our southern border to mexico where illegals and drugs create a killing field 10x the killings during the worst time in Iraq and Afghanistan. don't ask me why, we are World Police. we are #1, we are American Exceptionalism. -:)

dustydez  07/26/2012 04:17 PM Report

Clearly Syria has WMD . Question is do they have any semblance of an atomic weapon given its ties with Russia and Iran – Could this be the real and present danger and thus strategic reason why Russia and China and Iran have now been named by the Sec of State and why the US is overtly helping the revolutionary elements in the fight with Assad? Is the Russia a potential accessory at the Hague to crimes against humanity ? Does this conjecture on my part, ie that WMD exceed chem and bio weapons , and explain the uncharacteristic silence by Israeli hawks?

Is Syria's brazen disregard for the Annan plan and the world's condemnation in effect part of a doomsday play, as yet undisclosed and beyond the chemical and biological scenarios politically in play today? Is there something more sinister looming beneath the surface and which Assad et al are using to blackmail the western nations and indeed the Russians? Is Assad a proxy for Iran in this possible plausible scenario, lest we forget the lesson of 911 and Pearl Harbour.

BoseEinstein  07/26/2012 02:52 PM Report

Thank you, there are two sides to every conflict!

tabs  07/26/2012 07:07 AM Report

Comrade Vitaly is always fun to watch as he always sticks to the Kremlin's script. During this visit to Charlies Table one notes a bit of exasperation in that Comrade Vitaly says it once, says it twice and says it again a third time that, "Some are putting political, economic and military pressure" on Syria. Here one thinks that Comrade Vitaly is disgusted with the blind, heavy handed, hubris of American foreign policy when a more deft hand might achieve better results. That the heavy handed American approach might have wide reaching negative consequences.

What Mr Rose FAILED to ask about is Comrade Vitalys boss, President Putins recent directive to his European Ambassadors to be on the watch for major negative developments in the European Debt Crisis.

Gelles  07/26/2012 03:20 AM Report

On the other hand, if we attacked the Syrian forces engaged in murder of protesters, Russia would back down before it wrecked its de facto alliance with the West against Islamic terrorism. IMO.

Syria is a tough problem and could bring on a major war. Its Army is no friend to world peace or decency. Yet. Some of that Army has, however, done the right thing. Refused to kill their brothers.

Gelles  07/26/2012 03:11 AM Report

Russia has a legal veto (under law) and an H-bomb veto in fact -- so that the USA must compromise its rational difference with Russian plans -- if possible.

The Russian plan is not fair to Syrians who want change.

The USA wants to see change in Syria and strength in its de facto partnership with Russia. I see no easy way to get what we want. But the Syrian Army has the ultimate responsibility to end the murder of its protesters. Our responsibilities here are to compromise with Russia and to win over the Syrian Army. We lack the power to whip the Russians to obey us. Patience, not anger, is our best course. IMO.

Janosh  07/25/2012 09:17 PM Report

I don't think anything in the Constitution forbids outsourcing of a Sec of State to Russia. Seems like a better idea than flying a frumpy, useless Clinton admin hangover around the world for no particular purpose.

Neither America nor the world gained anything whatsoever by toppling Iraq's dictatorship and murdering all those civilians (think Vietnam, except that Ho was elected). America certainly will continue to lose for decades.

chawlydoodahdolly  07/25/2012 05:55 PM Report

Vitally Ghergkin, is a force to be reckonized with. A tour deforce of nature, a one man human wrecking ball, putin's spearhead of dread karate chop chop. Hi Yah! Take That! James bond

chawlydoodahdolly  07/25/2012 05:42 PM Report

A little tiff between the super powers. Yes, they Russians are still Super Powers, flexing their mighty muscles to protect their 'friend' because they too can be a Noble Super Power equal to USA, making a difference in the world by providing stability through authority.

why not? American leaders and spin doctors are so full of shit too.

REMant  07/25/2012 01:20 PM Report

The Brits long ago developed the humanitarian line to compensate for their diminishing actual power and it seems the US is following in their footsteps. It is a staple both of liberal evangelical religion, and of nationalism, cloaked as cosmopolitanism. Russia is a nemesis as much Islam in this view.

There's no a little irony in seeing peace-loving socialists allied with right-wing nutcases. It calls into question Barbara Tuchman's thesis about WWI. And it's the puzzle of LBJ. If he keeps this up I suppose it will be Obama's, too, hide behind female skirts as he might.

But exactly whom would Mr Rose like to see no longer standing by? And exactly whom are they planning to save? Whom did they save in Iraq? In Afghanistan? In Vietnam? In the Philippines, Cuba and Nicaragua, etc, etc? We've heard a lot about this from the secretary of state, but I'd like to know what the secretary of defense or Walter Reed's wounded warriors think about it.