Dam. That was my trump card.
Posted on 04/10/2014 2:36:44 AM PDT by wetphoenix
What can the United States do to reverse Russia’s annexation of Crimea? The short answer is, not much. Inside President Obama’s administration, it’s hard to find much unfeigned optimism about getting Vladimir Putin to give up the strategic peninsula.
But Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., introduced legislation on Wednesday that aims to ensure that U.S. impotence doesn’t turn into complacency.
“The American response must be much greater than a verbal slap if we want Putin to understand his actions in Ukraine are unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” he said in a statement. (Coats is among the nine Americans on whom Russia slapped sanctions recently)
Coats’ measure doesn’t read like an effort to force Moscow to pull back so much as an effort to prevent Washington from slipping back into business-as-usual mode, which is largely what happened after Russia’s brief 2008 war with Georgia.
Some of the steps Coats is proposing are largely symbolic: One provision would tell the Government Printing Office it “may not print any map, document, record, or other paper of the United States portraying or otherwise indicating Crimea as part of the territory of the Russian Federation.”
Other provisions include a ban on facilitating any investment in Crimea that involves any Russian official, government agency or private-sector institution. Another section would apply those restrictions to any International Monetary Fund or World Bank loans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Incredible...if Congress can dictate what goes on maps, how about we ban DC, Detroit, and many other places from being shown on maps of the United States. Require, instead, just white space there.
It's still stupid.
What a *relief* it is to know that all the other natiønal catastrøphes are so adequately under control that Mr.Coates has time for such as this !
Because after all what does Congress have to worry about except Crimea on a map?
Let's ask one simple question. Who is going to use US maps of Russia/Ukraine? Russians? Ukrainians? I don't think so; they can print their own maps, in their own languages. This leaves US citizens as primary users of those maps.
Now, what group of US citizens is likely to need those maps? Hot dog vendors from NYC? Plumbers in Idaho? Not likely. It would be the Pentagon; the State Department; major MSM. Don't they need to know what is really the situation on the ground, as opposed to the fantasy of politicians? What would happen if a US ship gets permission from Ukraine to enter its waters and then proceeds to Crimea, since that is marked on their maps as Ukraine? (Well, it will be stopped by the Russian Coast Guard, and the US Captain will be given a lecture in geography :-)
None of that is helpful. The situation has changed, and the best one can do is to acknowledge the change. Perhaps one can work to reverse the change... but there is no support for it in Crimea, and there is no desire among Ukrainians to go and die to get Crimea back. (It doesn't benefit an average Ukrainian in any way.) There is only one group of people in Ukraine who'd like Crimea back, and that is the current government. However they are frightened by today's events in Eastern Ukraine; they can't afford time to worry about Crimea if they have some (slim) chance of losing Donetsk. Putin may make a deal with them: they forget about Crimea, and he allows them to have Eastern Ukraine (for now.) This will leave only EU and the USA among those who are insisting that Crimea ought to be returned... even after the actual parties of the conflict reached an agreement. That would be very strange, since neither EU nor the USA have any standing in this matter.
There is yet another issue to consider. Russian capitals were being steadily exported from Russia since 1995. This was not well received in Kremlin, but not much could be done. But now Obama and EU gave him a great gift: the sanctions (which do nothing, in reality) demonstrated to every Russian businessman that their money in the West are hostage to whims of Western politicians. What will happen now? Here is one example. Sanctions were applied to one Russian bank (Bank Rossiya.) That bank then closed all their accounts in New York and declared that they are going to operate only with Russian Rouble instead, strengthening it as an international settlement currency. What sanctions are you talking about here, Obama? It's great news to Putin. Not only export of capital will be reduced, but now he can pay for more and more imports with the Rouble that he controls.
The US will now be shown as belonging to England, France, Spain...........
~There is yet another issue to consider. Russian capitals were being steadily exported from Russia since 1995. This was not well received in Kremlin, but not much could be done. But now Obama and EU gave him a great gift: the sanctions (which do nothing, in reality) demonstrated to every Russian businessman that their money in the West are hostage to whims of Western politicians. What will happen now? Here is one example. Sanctions were applied to one Russian bank (Bank Rossiya.) That bank then closed all their accounts in New York and declared that they are going to operate only with Russian Rouble instead, strengthening it as an international settlement currency. What sanctions are you talking about here, Obama? It’s great news to Putin. Not only export of capital will be reduced, but now he can pay for more and more imports with the Rouble that he controls.~
True. I thought from this angle since the very beginning of this crisis.
I’m from Indiana and I don’t consider Coats to be one of our guys. He’s a lifer DC politician who moved back to Indiana to keep Marlin Stutzman from getting the seat. Stutzman is one of our guys in the the house and Coats only makes enough tea party noise to get re-elected. He’s a RINO.
The United States and other nations did not officially recognize the illegal conquests of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and other European territories by the Soviet Union while they were allied with Hitler's Third Reich regime in Germany in 1940. Until their liberation in 1991, the Baltic States and other territories were shown on official U.S. maps as sovereign states under illegal occupation by the Soviet Union. The Crimea will be given the same treatment, showing the Crimea to be the sovereign territory of the Ukraine under illegal occupation by the Russian Federation.
“This is proposed by one of our guys.
It’s still stupid.”
Given the fact doing so is in compliance with international law, such as the Kellogg-Briand Pact, it is a mandatory action that cannot be dismissed or mis-characterized as “stupid.”
The United States and other nations did not officially recognize the illegal conquests of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and other European territories by the Soviet Union while they were allied with Hitler’s Third RecihReichRiciRichRehiRiceReachRetchReeceRecRecifeRecipeReciteRSIRecurResRacierRecsResowREITReidRochReinRaceRe’sReesRoisRuizRacyRichyRecceResinResitRenieRetieReich’sRacerRicerRea’sRee’sReeseRey’sRicRosieRearsResewReuseMerciCiErisRIReRhRoi’sRici’sRear’sRich’sRic’s regime in Germany in 1940. Until their liberation in 1991, the Baltic States and other territories were shown on official U.S. maps as sovereign states under illegal occupation by the Soviet Union. The Crimea will be given the same treatment, showing the Crimea to be the sovereign territory of the Ukraine under illegal occupation by the Russian Federation.
How about eastern Ukraine is under illegal occupation by tire-burning thugs in Kiev?
Dam. That was my trump card.
“Because after all what does Congress have to worry about except Crimea on a map?”
It has significant impacts upon diplomatic protocols and the status of other territorial disputes around the world. You cannot belittle it without appearing to be ignorant, dishonest, or both. Russia’s actions are a blatant violation of Russia’s obligations uner the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and the official maps are required to reflect the effects of such international law by showing the disputed territorial claim is an illegal occupation of the sovereign territory of the Ukraine. This is in perfect observance of how the international community treated the likewise illegal occupations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by the Soviet Union in 1940 while the Soviets were allies of Hitler’s Third REich regime in Germany.
I just had no idea the federal government was so powerful! They can’t do anything about real life political geography, BUT they can totally alter history ON PAPER! You get ‘em, Dan. And while you’re at it, why not just have the entire Russian Federation be a territory of Ukraine on our maps. That will show them.
Also, such maps could be used in schools. Our kids are going to now learn Mickey Mouse geography.
Pretending to do something is foolish
“How about eastern Ukraine is under illegal occupation by tire-burning thugs in Kiev?”
Grania, we know you are a disinformation mouthpiece for Putin’s criminal regime in Russia, but even you cannot prevail with such an absurd proposition as to suggest the Deputies the Ukrainian people elected to their offices in the Parliament lack the legal and moral authority to direct the Ukrainian armed forces and police forces to suppress a Russian led insurrection against the authority of the Ukrainian Parliament and the Ukrainian majorities living in those Oblasts. Those people are committing treason and attempting the armed overthrow of the Ukrainian sovereignty of the majority of the population in each of those Oblasts. The Russians are a minority or a small minority of the population, and they have no legal and no moral authority to committ these acts of violence and acts of treason against the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people and their state.
Lord God these people are trivial. In addition, this idiot wants to deny a reality brought on by Western ineptitude. Can’t people elect someone better than this creature? I think America “has lost it!”
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