Intellectual and moral bankruptcy are the hallmarks of the European chattering classes.
Clearly Steingart pines for a strong dictatorship to relieve him from difficult, real world choices.
Enjoy your chains, Gabor. You've earned them.
Zzzzzt! This is the point where logic vacates and emotions take over ...
I would stand back and ask myself...what exactly happened in the Ukraine.
When you examine the story, it’s simple. Poland went from a third-class economy over twenty years (the period after the Warsaw Pact era), to a vibrant economy. It’s not France...but everyone who is fifty or more years old in Poland will tell you that things really have gotten better.
So the Ukraine sat there with a potential education sector, an industrial sector, an agricultural sector, and an IT sector....in slightly better condition than Poland in 1990. What they needed was an open door to market and get products into Europe, with any hassle.
The EU sat there for years working on the agreement and finally came up to act serious in the fall of 2013. It shocked everyone because they were willing to open all doors. The key ingredient? Open transparency...no corrupt dealings....etc. Everything was falling into place, and the Ukraine would turn into a successful version of Poland in less than a decade.
The chief issue? The mob, organized crime, and mafia bosses of both Ukraine and Russia weren’t part of the deal. They didn’t like the terms, and they ended having a say in stopping the deal. Civil war ensued, and we have the situation of today.
But there is one odd aspect. Right now...the mobsters aren’t making nothing off the Ukraine. There’s no products...no sales....no profits...and the longer this goes....the less that anyone has in 2015. And to think that Russia will really wants to throw it’s hard-earned capital into eastern Ukraine as a new Soviet-Russian-Eastern Ukraine....is really bogus. They can’t afford this mythical kingdom of wannabe-Russians.
What a great world this would be if talk could plant crops and fill potholes.
I was a Democrat until I “wised up” in my twenties. My problem is that I have always had a passport - since this means I cannot be a Republican, can anyone tell me what party I can join?
"When Hillary Clinton compares Putin with Hitler, she does so only to appeal to the Republican vote, i.e. people who do not own a passport."