Posted on 03/04/2014 7:15:57 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The usual voices are arguing against any “excessive” American reaction to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
After all, Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954. True. And many people there are Russian-speaking and not loyal to Kiev. Also true. And given the geography, we have no military options and neither does the Ukrainian government. Right again. And nothing we can do through sanctions will matter as much to Putin as gaining the Crimea and destabilizing the new, pro-European government in Kiev. Correct.
So why should we do anything? Why throw the Russians out of the G-8, and seek trade and financial sanctions on Russia, and undertake any of the steps that analysts have proposed in the last few days?
There are several powerful arguments for why we must act, even if Putin keeps the Crimea.
First, we don’t know how far he will go — and he probably doesn’t know either. Whether he will seek to break Ukraine in two or place a pro-Putin government in power may depend on the costs we impose. Whether he will in the coming months and years seek to destabilize the Baltic nations — which were also once part of the USSR — may depend on what we do now. It’s wrong to assume Putin has an elaborate plan for 2014 and 2015 that he will follow religiously, and logical to believe that Putin takes advantage of opportunities and weighs costs and benefits.
Second, there is more than Putin to think about. Tyrants in places from Tehran to Beijing will also be wondering about the cost of violating international law and threatening the peace and stability of neighbors. What will China do in neighboring seas, or Iran do in its tiny neighbor Bahrain, if actions like Putin’s go without a response?
Before Obama, there was a sense of world order that relied in large part on America. When Saddam invaded Kuwait and claimed it as his own, we pushed him out. We intervened in the Balkans to restore peace there. Over the decades, we set rules — like “no Soviet missiles in Cuba” and ”no Cuban troops in Africa.” We did not enforce them all by massive military action, but by combinations of large and small military moves, covert action, sanctions, and diplomacy — in any case, we acted. Often it took a long time to achieve our goals, and often we did not achieve the direct goal, but firm responses by the United States and our allies raised the costs of such actions, and thereby deterred nations from copying or repeating them.
The combination of zero action on Syria despite our own declared “red line” and the weakening of the American military sent a dangerous message, and not just to Putin. That makes it all the more important that we make Putin and Russia pay today.
Some actions will be symbolic, like removing Russia from the G-8 (where it should never have been invited anyway), but the symbolism is useful: Russia is a second-rate state, a dictatorship whose economy and demography suggest further decline. We need to hurt the Russian economy and especially those who have gained (or perhaps stolen) the most from it, the oligarchs and Putin himself. This may help restrain future adventurism by Russia, and will be a warning to other leaders and elites. We need to help protect Poland, Georgia, the Baltic states, and the government in Kiev from Russian political and economic pressure. We need to revive NATO, which was after all largely formed to restrain Russia.
All this is important for American interests even if the Crimea situation is viewed as nearly irreversible. In fact, if we think Putin will keep the Crimea, it’s even more important that we make him pay as high a price as possible for his aggression.
When you elect a coward as president, your country is treated like a coward. When you lay your arms down when confronted by an enemy, they consider it surrender.
Here is another wooly-headed university type (Georgetown) who served in the State Dept. in the Reagan and Bush administrations, but didn’t learn much. It’s really easy to act tough while safely settled in the ivory tower of academia. He should know that your mouth shouldn’t write checks that your actions can’t cash.
Because Putin has been an aggressive imperialist all his life. His burning ambition is to reestablish the Russian empire.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Poland, Alaska, Finland, and Romania.
All have Russian speaking minorities, all were once a part of the Russian empire, and all have a good reason to fear Russian Military mischief in the future unless the world contest Putin's Military expansionist desires. 1/6 of the worlds landmass once belonged to the Russian Empire. And that is what is really at stake without checking Putin's current mischief in Crimea.
I think he imagines himself a new czar.
He figures Bammy has many czars and he wants to be THE czar.
We won’t.
And no one will remember Crimea a year from now.
In punishing Russia, we’re really punishing ourselves. We need Putin more than he needs us.
I don’t see the punitive measures against Russia going anywhere anytime soon.
The horse has already left the barn. America’s impotence and weakness, courtesy of Obama, invited it. There’s really not much to do. Other than ramp up our energy development big-time.
Besides, as a concern, Putin taking Crimea is small potatoes, compared to the current decay and disintegration of America. Economically, culturally, and morally, this country is in a death-spiral.
You don’t have to stand with Putin to despise neocons. What I think is funny is the neocons’ breathless reporting about places like Crimea, Abkhazia, Ossetia, as if they’ve always been thinking about them and concerned about what goes on there. Will Putin move on Moldova, Schizvanli, or Spingali? Who cares? He took over a huge part of Georgia. Great, we have a Marxist in our White House. Will kicking Putin out of Crimea raise my salary or put food on my table? It might lower gas prices, probably not, but a better way to lower prices is to get the Marxists out of DC.
I might give anti-Putin rhetoric if two things were true:
1. I thought American long-term interests lie with supporting the EU and its enviro-wackos over the Russians who rightly reject homosexuality.
2. Putin was morally and legally wrong to do what he did.
Neither is the case.
Oh and when you add in China’s expansionist desires, you create a world economy where the US, is just another thrid world player. Your ability to buy goods and food will be NOTHING like the posterity your used to.
Poland has very few Russians.
Amen! We’ve had a coup right here and we’re talking about punishing Putin?
When’s Elliot Abrams going to start worrying about North Korea? Maybe then I can start taking him seriously.
Russian minority in Poland consists of 13,000 people (according to the Polish census of 2011)
In the past - the times of the Second Polish Republic, partitions of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - the number of Russians within Polish borders was much higher, over 100,000.
But the current number is enough for Putin to send in troops under the guise of protection.
Poland was a part of the Russian Empire, and that’s Putins goal, to reestablish Czarist Russian Empire.
Your fierce protection of war criminal Putin makes one wonder if you have any material interest in Russia. We have international obligations, whether you like them or not. One of them is to protect Ukraine in case of invasion. Not keeping our promise just empowers the bully and makes us look weak - the liberal dream. Are you a closet liberal, by any chance?
Well, that’s been America’s prime foreign policy of late... promoting homosex around the globe.
With that level of depravity in the leaders who guide our policies, I’m not about to ever even remotely assume America is going to be on the right side of these conflicts anymore. That is, if Egypt, Libya, and Syria hadn’t already made this argument.
In Pre-War Poland, ethnic Poles were 70% of the population....most others were Jews and Ukrainians and some Volksdeutsche. Today it's about 95% ethnically Polish.
American long-term interests lie with opposing international war criminals, preferably with military force.
Putin was and is legally and morally wrong invading Ukraine - there is plenty of evidence that “reasons” for invasion were forged, despite your Russian convictions.
Wow! 10 years on FR and I’ve finally been found out! Fierce protection? You must have me confused with someone else.
Turkey scrambles jets after Russian plane flies near its Black Sea coast.
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