Oh, Tell Me What You Would Do

Yesterday, I was watching the Senate C-SPAN channel and listening to the Senators argue whether or not we should pass the resolution about loaning Ukraine money. There were people like Senator McCain, Reid, and others ready to pass the resolution and others were arguing that they didn't like the IMF role in distributing money and that it might take money out of the defense budget. And while I understand both arguments, it is the ones that oppose the resolution that I want clarification from.

The ones that are fighting this, are also the ones that are screaming in the media that we need to stop the Russian aggression in Chrimea and Ukraine. That Vladimir Putin is the current Joseph Stalin and is invading countries to rebuild the Soviet Union. That we need to intervene militarily to stop Russian incursions because after Ukraine will be the Russian speaking Baltic States and then he will continue to move west into neighboring states that declared their independence from the Soviets back in the 90's. While I don't believe that this is going to happen, let's say for arguments sake that you are correct. That everything happens above. What should we do?



Do we decide to take a stand militarily? We don't have a large enough military to continue our missions around the world as we sit right now. And now you want to send what would have to be at least 50,000 troops into the Ukraine just to have a shot at stopping the Russian threat. Not to mention the LIC situation that we would be sending our troops into. It would be another Afghanistan or Iraq. Our troops not knowing who is the enemy because they won't be wearing uniforms. Putin won't invade if we put our troops there. He isn't stupid. But he will incite an uprising of former Russian nationals in Ukraine and will use the fact that we sent our military to suppress a movement of people seeking their independence form what they see as a government that keeps them down. The PR of this is horrible for the United States. The cost of this is huge as well.

The same people advocating this response are the same people that say that the Federal Government takes too much money from the American people. I suppose you could pay for this action by eliminating the $4 Billion subsidies to the Oil Companies, but why would any politician advocate something that makes sense for the majority of Americans while hurting their donors? They wouldn't. So it would be more of the we need to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security talking points. It would also advocate for more privatization of services back here in the United States. Stuff like prisons, regulation inspections, nuclear waste testing, and other things. Like the private sector has had success with those things so far.

Instead of moving the 82nd and 101st Ariborne into Ukraine, do we try to put the screws on Russia economically? In the past that has worked really well. See how Iraq and Iran came back into the international community with the sanctions were put into effect. North Korea as well. So we understand that economic pressure alone cannot make a person in power do what he does not want to do. It will hurt them, but not cause them to change their ways. And how will it prevent an invasion of Ukraine in a week or less? It won't. It will not make Putin stop from annexing some of Ukraine. It won't stop Putin from trying to keep his nationalistic pride initiative to continue building his power base. And that initiative will play well if and when sanctions hit. I can see the standard line in Russia. The world believes that we are wrong to take pride in ourselves. They believe that we are less than they are. So we will prove to them that we deserve respect and dignity.

Moving isn't it. Sort of hitting the populist tones that the history of America has had. Immigrants, women, other races, homosexuals, and others have hit similar tones here in America. The pride of the Russian people will be high and on display. And you know what arrogant pricks us Americans are when our pride is on display. You want another cold war? You might get it going this route.

So there you have it. The three options, don't play the World's policeman and allow Russia to play their nationalistic expansion game, get involved militarily get bogged down in international affairs and spend lots of money that will anger the American people and possibly set up wars to come, or do we isolate Russia and their economy and have them become a big rogue state like North Korea and Iran, but they have military power and influence over a large swatch of the world. What do you believe? Or is there a 4th option short of invasion that I haven't thought of?

In the end, the only way to get the world to become peaceful is to convince others of how we think. Not shove it down their throats, but to let them see the validity of the argument and see that it is the better idea. Until we decide that should be the way we run our country and diplomacy that way, I believe that we will not get away from decisions like this. And that is the legacy that we will leave to our children and grandchildren. A legacy of failure in diplomacy and international relations.