Posted on 03/23/2014 8:30:57 AM PDT by Dave346
While Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea are worthy of international censure, a more imminent threat to world peace is impasse over Iran.
There has been a sense in recent days that this was no ordinary week in the life of the planet. Our already bloodstained 21st-century history — unfolding once again in uncertain and threatening ways — seemed to be opening a new chapter.
Two events last Tuesday in world capitals more than 2,000 kilometres apart best symbolized this. But which of these events do you think poses the greatest potential danger to world peace?
In Moscow, a preening, self-satisfied Vladimir Putin announced to Russia’s puppet parliament that the former Ukrainian region of Crimea — “based on the free will of people” — would join the Russian Federation. This followed a referendum last weekend in Crimea, effectively accomplished at Russian gunpoint. More than 95 per cent of voters, echoing the glory days of former Soviet “democracy,” were said to have voted for annexation.
In Vienna, meanwhile, high-level negotiators from Iran and the world’s six major powers resumed delicate negotiations intended to end the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb. An interim agreement with Iran runs out in late July, and officials described this week’s agenda as “the toughest” since negotiations began.
So what keeps you awake at night? The fear of the Russian bear moving its military might aggressively beyond Crimea, into the rest of Ukraine and deep into the former Soviet republics? Or an eventual breakdown in negotiations with Iran, with the real prospect that unpredictable military action, led by Israel, will convulse the whole of the Middle East once again?
With all due deference to the Cold Warriors among us who find the Russian narrative so comforting in its familiarity, my focus is still centred on Iran, the West and Israel. It is that drama — not Russia’s — that has the real potential to determine how this next chapter of our 21st-century history will be written.
What Putin did in Crimea was obviously illegal, unacceptable and deserving of international censure. Yes, yes, yes. He needs to be watched. Yes.
But what he did was not surprising. Who would expect Putin to remain silent as its neighbour, Ukraine, threatened Russia’s strategic location on the Black Sea? Does anyone believe that if a neighbour of the United States posed a similar threat to Washington, the U.S. would not act aggressively against it? Has anyone heard of Cuba?
But in the torrent of western warnings about the new Russian threat, little evidence supporting this is presented. Putin’s resentment of the West is overflowing but Russia has neither the will nor the power to match his words. Putin oversees a faltering economy and a weakened military and he simply doesn’t have the means.
A more imminent threat to world peace is the continuing impasse over Iran. An interim agreement worked out by the parties runs out in late July and this raises the prospect of two possible outcomes: either they will be on the road to a permanent agreement, or there will be a breakdown. With a breakdown would come the threat of a military strike against Iran, and the risk of a catastrophic regional war.
Efforts in the U.S. and Israel to prevent a deal with Iran are still actively in play. Powerful members of the U.S. Congress have been looking for ways to turn the screws on Iran even after the White House warned these initiatives would jeopardize ongoing negotiations.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said his country could not depend on the U.S. to handle the Iranian nuclear issue. He said President Barack Obama’s “image in the world is feebleness” and added Israel was prepared to act against Iran on its own: “We have to behave as if we can only rely on ourselves.”
On Wednesday, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Ya’alon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered Israel’s military to prepare for a possible strike on Iran this year. Earlier this week, Netanyahu said the leaders of the world’s major powers were “burying their heads in the sand” in their negotiations with Iran’s government.
So, yes, let us keep an eye on Putin and Ukraine. But let us never lose sight of Israel and Iran. It is that drama, far more than Russia’s, which is fraught with danger.
Neither.
It's the rise of Communo-Fascist Totalitarianism, in the only country that can maintain said peace. Such as it is.
That's my final answer, and I'm sticking to it
Why isn’t Barry one of the choices?
someone might ask if Iran’s stall -
that’s what the “agreement to negotiate” about its nuclear programs is about - a diplomatic stalling tactic NOT likely to reach firm enforceable agreements the west can accept -
was/is done for Russia’s ultimate benefit, leaving those negotiations inconclusive and not completed just as Putin starts to really flex his muscle?????
making hard choices even harder (not not impossible, just harder)
That's why the question is poorly designed: at the moment, the biggest threat to the world is either Russirania or Irussiaran, take your pick.
Greatest threat to peace and civilization is islam.......
China is the biggest threat! Watch—June will be the time Red China Moves on Japan.
In my book I don't even consider Iran to be in the top 5! I'd say China, followed by Pakistan (now, that is an 'interesting' country), followed by Russia, followed by Saudi Arabia (financing of Salafist/Wahhabist ideologies around the globe), and at fifth place North Korea (too many variables there). At sixth I may include Iran.
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