In two minutes you’ll know what you need to know about current events in Ukraine and believe me it’s an important issue because our relationship with Russia is at stake which means their allies (i.e. Iran, Georgia, Syria, Venezula, etc.), would be in play. Are things really heated up, let’s take a look at Putin’s recent comments: “There will be
catastrophic consequences should the U.S. meddle in our business.” After he said
this we backed down to saying we’ll take diplomatic actions (we once again drew
a line in the sand only to step back and draw a new one.
A little background; both countries were pivotal in forming the U.S.S.R. back in 1922 and they were pivotal once again when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. When they broke off, immediately disputes began as there were portions of Ukraine that Russia wanted for strategic reasons such as a major seaport on the Black Sea. In this particular matter Ukraine leased sections of the port to the Soviet Union through 2017. When the Ukraine wanted to join NATO, Russia became livid because the last thing they wanted was for other countries to have influence over the Ukraine. This is what stoked the fire and got Russia saber rattling; they wanted to have influence over them through energy supplies without any other country having a stake in Ukraine.
Around 60% of Ukraine’s population is Russian and in 2011 a very pro-Russian president was elected (Viktor Yanukovych). I don’t think there was anything Russia asked for that Yan didn’t allow. Here’s where things got ugly and why we’re seeing what we are on TV; a revolution took place and Russia’s friend (Viktor), was ousted from power and went on the run. Putin cannot afford for Ukraine to become destabilized to where NATO and/or the U.N. could come in and take away Russia’s influence there like the port Ukraine gave them access to on the Black Sea. Strategically it is to them what the Persian Gulf is to us.
So anyhow this is why things are so crazy over there. From a political perspective I don’t think President Obama should be making threats that all options are on the table. First of all he has drawn a red line before and nothing happened so we lost credibility. There’s no way in my opinion we’ll back up any threats we make. The only threats should be coming from the United Nations a united voice not one from the U.S. that won’t be executed. As it is now the perception is it’s us versus Russia and that’s a
terrible position to be in especially when we’re saying things like Putin wants to go back to the old days...how stupid…he has a large ego so this is exactly what we don’t need to do. This reminds me of how he’s worked with republicans, he says bad things about them then wants them to come to the table and negotiate. What a terrible leader.
President Obama and even more so his staff, has had a foreign policy that lacks integrity and shifts around from moment to moment. You can’t have this because other countries don’t know where they stand with us…Israel is certainly confused especially when Obama made his first middle-east apology tour and he didn’t stop by Israel; if I were them I’d be nervous.
I don’t know what they do behind the scenes but these are some things I’d do in reference to drafting a foreign policy:
Even though we don’t like to call it nation building we’re forcing democracy on countries where it can’t work. Many countries in the middle-east are loaded with various religious sects (tribes), so creating a legislative branch is impossible and any president we help get put into power will be considered by the citizens to be selling out to the west...they don't want leaders like this to be successful. The fact is many of these countries are more stable with a dictator. Our goal should be to reach the hearts and minds of the dictator and key members of his staff which is much easier than
trying to do the same with their entire population.
I’d quit trying to police the world. We went into Iraq for WMD’s but we were also there for humanitarian purposes as Sadam’s Royal Guard was killing and raping (even little girls), any families who were said to oppose his regime. His sons were raping women at will including in public to show their power. I don't want to police the world but in this case I'd be tempted to do something as what they were doing was disgusting. What I don't think we've done is define what humanitarian purposes are and what ones we'd go in to address. We haven't listed the amount of funding necessary to address these defined humanitarian efforts so it becomes a free for all when Congress determines how much funds to release.
One of the problems we have is the same people who are holding signs thanking us for coming are the same ones burning our flag telling us to leave. It’s not worth it. For over two thousand years this region has been unstable why in the world are we so arrogant that we think we can fix it?
catastrophic consequences should the U.S. meddle in our business.” After he said
this we backed down to saying we’ll take diplomatic actions (we once again drew
a line in the sand only to step back and draw a new one.
A little background; both countries were pivotal in forming the U.S.S.R. back in 1922 and they were pivotal once again when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. When they broke off, immediately disputes began as there were portions of Ukraine that Russia wanted for strategic reasons such as a major seaport on the Black Sea. In this particular matter Ukraine leased sections of the port to the Soviet Union through 2017. When the Ukraine wanted to join NATO, Russia became livid because the last thing they wanted was for other countries to have influence over the Ukraine. This is what stoked the fire and got Russia saber rattling; they wanted to have influence over them through energy supplies without any other country having a stake in Ukraine.
Around 60% of Ukraine’s population is Russian and in 2011 a very pro-Russian president was elected (Viktor Yanukovych). I don’t think there was anything Russia asked for that Yan didn’t allow. Here’s where things got ugly and why we’re seeing what we are on TV; a revolution took place and Russia’s friend (Viktor), was ousted from power and went on the run. Putin cannot afford for Ukraine to become destabilized to where NATO and/or the U.N. could come in and take away Russia’s influence there like the port Ukraine gave them access to on the Black Sea. Strategically it is to them what the Persian Gulf is to us.
So anyhow this is why things are so crazy over there. From a political perspective I don’t think President Obama should be making threats that all options are on the table. First of all he has drawn a red line before and nothing happened so we lost credibility. There’s no way in my opinion we’ll back up any threats we make. The only threats should be coming from the United Nations a united voice not one from the U.S. that won’t be executed. As it is now the perception is it’s us versus Russia and that’s a
terrible position to be in especially when we’re saying things like Putin wants to go back to the old days...how stupid…he has a large ego so this is exactly what we don’t need to do. This reminds me of how he’s worked with republicans, he says bad things about them then wants them to come to the table and negotiate. What a terrible leader.
President Obama and even more so his staff, has had a foreign policy that lacks integrity and shifts around from moment to moment. You can’t have this because other countries don’t know where they stand with us…Israel is certainly confused especially when Obama made his first middle-east apology tour and he didn’t stop by Israel; if I were them I’d be nervous.
I don’t know what they do behind the scenes but these are some things I’d do in reference to drafting a foreign policy:
Even though we don’t like to call it nation building we’re forcing democracy on countries where it can’t work. Many countries in the middle-east are loaded with various religious sects (tribes), so creating a legislative branch is impossible and any president we help get put into power will be considered by the citizens to be selling out to the west...they don't want leaders like this to be successful. The fact is many of these countries are more stable with a dictator. Our goal should be to reach the hearts and minds of the dictator and key members of his staff which is much easier than
trying to do the same with their entire population.
I’d quit trying to police the world. We went into Iraq for WMD’s but we were also there for humanitarian purposes as Sadam’s Royal Guard was killing and raping (even little girls), any families who were said to oppose his regime. His sons were raping women at will including in public to show their power. I don't want to police the world but in this case I'd be tempted to do something as what they were doing was disgusting. What I don't think we've done is define what humanitarian purposes are and what ones we'd go in to address. We haven't listed the amount of funding necessary to address these defined humanitarian efforts so it becomes a free for all when Congress determines how much funds to release.
One of the problems we have is the same people who are holding signs thanking us for coming are the same ones burning our flag telling us to leave. It’s not worth it. For over two thousand years this region has been unstable why in the world are we so arrogant that we think we can fix it?
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