Wednesday, April 23, 2014

How to Freeze Out Aggressors

          Those of us who are not CIA insiders may never know who dropped the ball in Ukraine. The internationally innocent among us may never learn how much the west’s failure to financially underpin Ukraine has impacted its political stability. And we probably will not get a contemporary account of how bad Ukraine’s government (the one we supposedly support) really is. It IS certain that our national broadcast news media will fail us in these matters. They’re too busy pimping their commercial wares, and parading hotties, to actually do news. If you doubt that, ask yourself how much they have actually taught you about how the US Congress works, and about the bills it passes.
          It does seem clear however, that Putin and his minions are going to continue encroaching on their neighbors, and generally behaving like they want a rematch of the Cold War (they lost the last one). The frightening thing is that Putin may be the best Russia has, in the way of leaders able to moderate that country’s behavior.
           Around here, we support coordinated international sanctions against Russians to encourage such moderation. It won’t work of course, but it’s good because it promotes dialogue and perhaps even consensus about discouraging aggression. In America, sanctions once imposed ought to be permanent. The perpetrators of aggression, Russian or otherwise, and their beneficiaries, should be excluded from everything America might offer, and our courts should proceed with permanent action against all their assets. Or are we just playing games here?

No comments:

Post a Comment