This Annexation Is An Outrage: Let’s Go To War
Oh, wait. They’re talking about Crimea, not Texas. Nor Hawaii, or Midway, American Samoa, Wake Island and half dozen other pacific islands we annexed, from what I can see, without money changing hands. And there are a dozen other annexations the good old U.S. of A. pulled off where we actually paid the owner while we held a gun to their head. Such as Puerto Rico and Guam, not to mention the Panama Canal zone.
The neo-cons, some holding positions within this administration’s State Department are rattling their sabres. Or should I say, the sabres held by the great unwashed’s sons and daughters they’re eager to send off to blast and be blasted. And John McCain just can’t wait to mix it up with Russia.
As usual, many in America suffer historical amnesia about our own empire building and are eager to hold us up as the model of rectitude in the realm of nation-building. Fortunately, our President once again is the voice of rationality in the Crimean crisis, advocating diplomacy over a display of shock and awe. He’s opposed by a bunch who argue that we need to act tough, not necessarily act smart and calmly. And he does not seem eager to restart the cold war.
I lived through the cold war, beginning, middle and end. And paranoia is not a happy place to be. I remember the drills teaching us to crouch under our little school desks with the storage tops, as if that would shield us from radiation. And the storage of survival items and canned goods in our basements, as if that would protect us from the Soviet invaders. And the crude propaganda films about the superiority of capitalism over communism. And the televised McCarthy hearings that even my Republican father thought were an outrage.
I don’t want to go there again, nor do I want that for my grand and great grandchildren. I don’t want this major distraction intended to make us forget about our own economic crisis for most in this economy or the pathetic dysfunction of our body politic.
Maybe it is time to let go of the behavior of competing nations trying to mimic our big stick diplomacy and concentrate on cleaning up our own act, unless our safety as a people is actually threatened.
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You only have to go back to October 16, 2002 and the joint resolution passed by the United States Congress authorizing military action against Iraq to show that we have no credibility on the topic of annexation and invasion. (Thanks Bush, and weak-kneed members of Congress like Joe Biden!!)
Senator McCain, and the rest, apparently have very short memories.
Right, Putin violated international law by annexing a portion of a sovereign state. But his illegal act pales compared to our invasion of Iraq. In the former, virtually no violence occurred, and the annexed portion was made up of a majority of ethnic Russians who supported Putin’s action.
On the contrary, re our invading Iraq, well we all know that story very well indeed, and it ain’t pretty.
I’m just stunned at the chickenhawks who are beating the drum for war….this isn’t Iraq, North Korea, Iran, etc. we are dealing with….this is Russia, a big, modern nation with a huge defense budget. They took several million casualties in two world wars and were still in our face the next few decades. They didn’t change that much in a decade of “peace”. We have bigger problems at home to deal with. Talk to me about war if they move on Poland, etc. but Crimea has been part of Russia for much of history anyway.
Thanks Mr. Chamberlain. (I kid)
Part of the problem is that no one attacks the war pigs, no one stands up and tells McCain to shut the hell up and sit down and that includes faux Libertarian Rand Paul. I am confident that McCain, Graham and the rest of the war lovers will go unrequited yet again. But there needs to be something more, preferably in thier collective face.
This is a serious time for redefining our relationship with Russia. The post-Cold War Europe with post- modern thinking is gone- meaning the shared sacrifice and the increasing shared political and social values- with accepted permanent borders and lessened nationalism mattered. Putin tactically has won Crimea- by a stealth invasion ostensibly protecting Russian speakers. There are a number of countries in Europe that can apply the same tactic– Putin plays a larger game – that is to ensure that Ukraine remain unstable- troop movements, Russian infiltrating and organizing these “spontaneous demonstrations”- this will continue well into the May 25th presidential election in Ukraine. Unless of course Russia intervenes in the meantime. Putin does not want a democratic Ukraine with less corruption and European leaning- “threatening” his authoritarian space in Russia. NATO is off the table in Ukraine- but now even a realtionship with the EU might be much for Putin. It will be a very challenging time – America’s long term interest is to support a Ukraine that would act as a bridge and not a beachhead to Russia- a Finland option perhaps-