President Obama is in a difficult
position. On the one hand he has to
project an appearance of strength on the world stage. On the other, his election was symbolically a
reaction to the wars started by George W. Bush which still seem endless. Obama’s election meant a time-out for the
military industrial complex to cool its jets and for a peace dividend to help trim the federal deficit and time to give the Left’s progressives opportunities to advance their agendas which it has successfully allowed, unfortunately.
On queue, the far Right and its
pantheon of war hawks like John McCain began their armchair criticisms stopping
just short of advocating thermo nuclear retaliation. I’m surprised not seeing the Neo
Conservatives who fanned the flames of war against Iraq and the rest of the
world in their Utopian strategies to spread global democracy through war – an
insane idea. People like that want war
for war’s sake. George W. Bush invaded
Iraq, a country that did not threaten us or even have weapons of mass
destruction. What kind of credibility
does the United States have when it engages in such inflammatory rhetoric? Why do we have to play World Cop?
At least Vladimir Putin and Russia
have a stake in Crimea – a cultural, historic, and, above all, a strategic connection
with Russia. Putin’s policy is not
“Retro” like the TV twenty- somethings who feel obligated to offer their two
cents on foreign policy. It would be
better for them to keep their comments to themselves or focus them on the
fashions of the Academy Awards or the latest celebrity
incarceration; the idea of Putin coming to the aid of an ally unlawfully
displaced is nothing new – certainly not Retro.
What Putin did is old Real Politic, but perhaps
the way he did it is new and perhaps right out of George W’s playbook. Putin may be telling the truth when he said
that no Russian troops were involved in the take-over of Crimea. Wouldn’t it be interesting if they turned out
to be Blackwater type “private contractors” like the mercenaries we hired to
proxy-fight our own wars?
