How do you feel about the government of a land area within a sovereign country voting to hold a referendum on whether it stays part of that country or becomes part of another one….while armed troops from the other one have invaded, and are currently occupying the land area?
Do you figure this is being done freely?
Read Chelsea J. Carter, Laura Smith-Spark and Michael Holmes\’ article at cnn.com, and you will find that:
-Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and they agree to keep talking. That\’s nice.
-President Obama – hard-hitting internationalist that he is, said today that “As you have heard me say all week, the choices that Russia has made escalated this situation, and we believe Russia has the opportunity now … to de-escalate”, and “Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include … the government of Ukraine”. Yep, that should do the trick.
-Both Mr. Obama and the European Union are threatening sanctions against Russia if it does not reverse field and leave Crimea — as if Vladimir putin had not already considered this possibility and – as proven by his invasion – discounted it as a factor.
-Meanwhile, putin – incredibly – is claiming that the thousands of armed-to-the-teeth soldiers who are occupying Crimea are not Russian troops at all, they are local “self-defense” forces. Amazing how, from non-existence, they managed to get all those arms, learn how to march in formation and construct a complete operational takeover of the country in a matter of several days.
Translation: putin went in with a plan and an objective, and is going to see it through. Part of his calculus is that neither the United States nor the European Union has the cajones to do anything about it that would trouble him for even one second.
Why would putin think this? In the case of the United States, how about five years of feckless inane foreign policy going nowhere fast…coupled with a plan for the future of fewer military personnel, but more social entitlements. Just like the European Union countries have done.
Is his calculation correct? I wish I could say no. But, truth be told, it probably is.
After running rings around him with Iran, and then Syria, why in the world would putin worry about Barack Obama?
I mean, it isn\’t like he runs Israel or the UK…
