Category Archives: foreign policy

Ukrainian Independence

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Ukraine’s overwhelming vote for independence from Russia in 1991, including those oblasts in the southeast where Ukrainians of Russian ethnicity live and the Crimea oblast, whose population is majority Ukrainians of Russian ethnicity, has been confirmed by a March 2014 Gallup poll, a poll that covered all of Ukraine, including occupied Crimea.

Ukrainians of all backgrounds and from every corner of the country reject Vladimir Putin’s decision to send Russian troops to Ukraine to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians, with 81% of those surveyed expressing opposition to the move and 13% in favor.

And note especially:

85% of Ukrainians said that Russian-speaking citizens are not threatened, an opinion shared by 66% of ethnic Russians themselves.  74% of Ukrainians living in both the south and the east, regions where Russians claim protection is most needed, responded that Russian-speaking Ukrainians were not under threat because of their language.

And this:

a majority of Ukrainians…believed Crimea should remain part of Ukraine, with 57% in the south and 52% in the east supporting the status quo ante.

So much for the legitimacy of the Russian Anschluss or for the legitimacy of the Kerry-Obama timidity and moral equivalence equivocation in the face of Putin’s aggression.

Calibrated?

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Secretary of State John Kerry says he’s going to reevaluate US’ participation in the “peace” talks between Israel and the Palestinians.  With his centerpiece diplomatic effort failing as sadly laughably as his failure vis-à-vis Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent occupation of a major part of it, Kerry now says this about his “peace” talks:

We are going to evaluate very carefully exactly where this is and where it might possibly be able to go….

And, with this administration’s insistence on the amorality of moral equivalence, Kerry added this:

There are limits to the amount of time and effort that the U.S. can spend if the parties themselves are unable to take constructive steps.

And

We intend to evaluate precisely what the next steps will be[.]

Will you be doing a properly calibrated assessment, too, Mr Kerry?

Foreign Policy Fail

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Secretary of State John Kerry, in the aftermath of his latest failure, this time with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on the matter of the Russian invasion and partition of Ukraine, had this to say for himself:

Any real progress in Ukraine must include a pullback of the very large Russian force that is currently amassing along Ukraine’s border.  Tonight I raised with the foreign minister our strong concern about these forces.

Notice that: not a word about pulling out of Ukraine.  Just a plea to please don’t hurt Ukraine any more.

And

The chief US diplomat and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also didn’t appear to reach any major common ground on discussions aimed at revamping Ukraine’s political system.

Never mind that Ukraine’s political system isn’t any concern of Russia’s or ours; it’s for the Ukrainian people to determine.  And they’ve already begun that, tossing a mendacious government that had lost the consent of the Ukrainians to govern.

How much more damage will this administration inflict on us and on our friends and allies over the next three years?  I shudder to think of it.

Amateur Hour

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Just three days after the State Department issued a travel warning for Ukraine, it began promoting a campaign urging Americans to visit the country….

The later, pro-travel video doesn’t even mention that immediately prior travel warning—not even to say, “Go visit colorful Ukraine, just don’t go to these provinces.”

Not even the Left hand knows what the Left hand is doing.

Naïveté

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President Barack Obama has reassured Europe and Ukraine in an interview with the Dutch newspaper, de Volkskrant.  (An aside: the “interview” actually was a submittal of eight written questions, of which Obama chose to answer five.  There was nothing interactive here.)

The United States does not view Europe as a battleground between East and West, nor do we see the situation in Ukraine as a zero-sum game. That’s the kind of thinking that should have ended with the Cold War.  The Ukrainian people do not have to choose between East and West.  On the contrary, it’s important that Ukraine have good relations with the United States, Russia, and Europe.  As I’ve said, the future of Ukraine ought to be decided by the people of Ukraine.

The trouble is, this statement is hard to take seriously.  If Obama were truly serious, he’d be moving to get the Russians out of Ukraine so the people of Ukraine can live the decision they’ve already made: in their 1991 vote for independence from Russia.  Instead, Obama went on to say this:

Therefore, the US and many other countries around the world condemn the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.  That is absolutely unacceptable.  It is important that Russia understands that the international community does not acquiesce in the violation of the sovereignty and international integrity of Ukraine.  Moreover, if Russia continues on this path, penalties and pressure on the Russian economy, and Russia’s diplomatic isolation will only increase.  For that is now Russia’s fundamental choice.

It isn’t an intervention, it’s an invasion and partition.  More importantly than that term of reference failure, though, is his failure of policy and of action.  Obama is doing nothing to roll back this latest Russian invasion of a Western ally; he’s engaging only in idle chit chat, his only overt response is to tell some Russian and Russian-allied Ukrainian oligarchs they can’t play with some of their toys in the West.

He has, in fact, acquiesced in the violation of the sovereignty and international integrity of Ukraine.