Never Say Never

I guess we could only expect Joe (Big Mouth) Biden carry on in the best tradition of our childish foreign policy. On his recent trip to Ukraine he announced that “The U.S. will never accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea,” or words to that effect. I guess no one ever told him that never is a very, very long time. As Crimea (as well as Ukraine itself) was a part of the Soviet Union, until Nikita Khrushchev (a Ukrainian) arbitrarily assigned it to Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet empire (some say in a drunken moment), that was apparently quickly accepted. And why would anyone be foolish enough to claim they will never accept an obvious fait accompli? Crimea is now part of Russia, Russia is not going to return it to Ukraine and everyone knows it (except perhaps Biden and the U.S.). It was a perfectly obvious move by Putin after the coup in Kiev, as he was certainly not going to allow his only warm water naval base to potentially disappear and a majority of the Crimean population wanted to be part of Russia rather than join with Europe. Crimea and the Eastern Ukraine were part of Russia since the time of Catherine the Great, so what’s the big deal that so many are upset about? Does anyone really still not accept our theft of Texas and California from Mexico?

One might well ask who really cares whether Crimea is part of Russia or part of Ukraine? The answer, I fear, is no one…except those corporate interests looking to profit by looting the Ukraine of its resources and rich agricultural potential  (just as Hitler wanted to do).  During World War II many Ukrainians fought on the side of Germany against Russia, a fact that has not been forgotten and at least partly accounts for the animosity between the Ukraine and Russia today, and also accounts for why Putin worries that he may have to defend Russians living in Ukraine.

Anyway, after the EU and the US provoked a coup in Kiev, Putin reacted in a very predictable way. But now, of course the story is all about Russian “aggression,” stoking fears that Putin wants to re-establish the Soviet Empire, he may move further into Ukraine, take over Moldova, Georgia, Latvia, Poland, even the arctic circle, and etc. As Putin disavows any such intentions, and has shown no signs of doing anything but protecting Russians living in Ukraine, this is all fear mongering on the part of the West. Putin and Russia are constantly portrayed as “bad” while we the West are, of course, all “good.” Thus we are reassuring our NATO allies that we will stand by them if they are attacked by the bad guys, we are sending one or more ships into the Baltic, 150 U.S. troops to three NATO allies, perhaps as many as 10,000 to Poland, and so on, foolishly beating our chests and baying at the moon, boasting that our military is superior to theirs, our god is better than their god, our Dad is tougher than their Dad, and our pee-pees are bigger than theirs, just as kindergarteners behave on the playground.  Putin and Obama apparently had a pretty good relationship and there was considerable mutual cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, but now, of course, with all this childish saber rattling and fear mongering it appears that relationship may be impossible to maintain. Unfortunately, our foreign policy demands that no nation on earth should have any national interests that might conflict with ours. This has worked for us (in a way, anyway) with most of the smaller nations we have bullied for years, but Putin is not going to stand for it, thus he is really “bad,” even super bad, possibly the only one standing in the way of the Neocons desire for world domination.

If Putin turns eastward and becomes part of a viable, united Eurasia, the “jig is up” for the possibility of world domination and the “Lone Superpower” myth will vanish, putting an end to the American Empire once and for all. Childishness is not a viable strategy when dealing with adults. If we don’t change our attitude and behavior with respect to Russia it may well lead to the very thing the Neocons fear most, a  united Eurasian power, Russia, India, China, and others with a majority of the world’s population and power.  I wonder, will Joe Biden be concerned about Crimea then? All of our sanctions and pressure on Russia may very well drive them eastward towards the development of the very thing we do not wish to see, a union that would dwarf the influence and power of EU/US axis and dramatically change international politics to the detriment of the West.  

 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

Corinthians 13:11