The emerging split between the U.S. and Europe over Ukraine is exactly what Putin has been working toward. When Merkel comes to Washington in two days, she and Obama will try to paper over that divide, but it is real and growing. Obama may ultimately decide that arming the Ukrainian military is too risky. Only after he says that openly could the U.S. and Europe start working on a real alternative strategy.The US may have permanently damaged its position vis-à-vis Europe. Many Europeans are horrified to discover that the US would risk a war in Europe over Ukraine. US leaders don't seem to understand this anymore than they understand Russia's leaders with they say that arming Ukraine will be interpreted as a hostile act and treated accordingly.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Josh Rogin — U.S-Germany Rift on Ukraine Aids Putin
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5 comments:
The American political class is running off the rails into desperate fanaticism as its various global projects and pretensions collapse under the unavoidable flow of historical change.
Why cannot these people accept the fact that a nation that represents the 5% of the world population simply cannot be an empire dominating the rest of humanity. Too much american exceptionalism kool-aid.
As Marx said, capitalism is a revolutionary force, now they have advanced many nations through globalisation (although not all due to some perfidious alliances for economic and geopolitical interests of the elites in the past) and they have to accept the fact that the empire is going to collapse.
This is not a bad thing, as it will hopefully internal reform of the corrupted West structures towards more democracy. They don't want this, as they are too comfortable in their faux-democracy oligarchical regimes, but is unavoidable. Accept it, adapt, and move on. Is not like you are going to become part of the 99% tomorrow morons.
Europeans forgot the lessons of history at their peril. They don't want to fight for Ukraine, then comes the Baltics, Poland and then what, Germany? The social costs of armament when they have to defend Germany will be so enormous it would be much cheaper to stop Putin now.
The US and Europe will only have to be concerned if they put offensive weapons in the Baltic, inviting the Russians to react as the US did to offensive weapons in Cuba, which, by the way, was Russia's answer to the US putting missiles on their border in Turkey. Both the US and Russia withdrew their missiles to de-escalate a dangerous situation that almost lead to nuclear war.
The Guardain
hank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear warT
Edward Wilson
If you were born before 27 October 1962, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov saved your life. It was the most dangerous day in history. An American spy plane had been shot down over Cuba while another U2 had got lost and strayed into Soviet airspace. As these dramas ratcheted tensions beyond breaking point, an American destroyer, the USS Beale, began to drop depth charges on the B-59, a Soviet submarine armed with a nuclear weapon.
The captain of the B-59, Valentin Savitsky, had no way of knowing that the depth charges were non-lethal "practice" rounds intended as warning shots to force the B-59 to surface. The Beale was joined by other US destroyers who piled in to pummel the submerged B-59 with more explosives. The exhausted Savitsky assumed that his submarine was doomed and that world war three had broken out. He ordered the B-59's ten kiloton nuclear torpedo to be prepared for firing. Its target was the USS Randolf, the giant aircraft carrier leading the task force.
If the B-59's torpedo had vaporised the Randolf, the nuclear clouds would quickly have spread from sea to land.…
PeterP,
You need to make a better case that you understand Putin's evil intent. He looks to me like someone taking reasonable and even conservative actions to protect his country's interests.
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