Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault

[nationalize the fed]

ForeignAffairs.com - published by the Council on Foreign Relations
John J. Mearsheimer September/October 2014

A man takes a picture as he stands on a Soviet-style star re-touched with blue paint so that it resembles the Ukrainian flag, Moscow, August 20, 2014. (Maxim Shemetov / Courtesy Reuters)

According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine.

But this account is wrong: the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West. At the same time, the EU’s expansion eastward and the West’s backing of the pro-democracy movement in Ukraine -- beginning with the Orange Revolution in 2004 -- were critical elements, too. Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement, and in recent years, they have made it clear that they would not stand by while their strategically important neighbor turned into a Western bastion. For Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected and pro-Russian president -- which he rightly labeled a “coup” -- was the final straw. He responded by taking Crimea, a peninsula he feared would host a NATO naval base, and working to destabilize Ukraine until it abandoned its efforts to join the West.

Putin’s pushback should have come as no surprise. After all, the West had been moving into Russia’s backyard and threatening its core strategic interests, a point Putin made emphatically and repeatedly. Elites in the United States and Europe have been blindsided by events only because they subscribe to a flawed view of international politics. They tend to believe that the logic of realism holds little relevance in the twenty-first century and that Europe can be kept whole and free on the basis of such liberal principles as the rule of law, economic interdependence, and democracy.

But this grand scheme went awry in Ukraine. The crisis there shows that realpolitik remains relevant -- and states that ignore it do so at their own peril. U.S. and European leaders blundered in attempting to turn Ukraine into a Western stronghold on Russia’s border. Now that the consequences have been laid bare, it would be an even greater mistake to continue this misbegotten policy.

THE WESTERN AFFRONT

As the Cold War came to a close...>

MORE: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141769/john-j-mearsheimer/why-the-ukraine-crisis-is-the-wests-fault

"Fuck the EU"- Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland
Wife of PNAC Co-Founder Robert Kagan

Transcript of Nuland Phone Call
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957

[newfie11]

1. Thanks for posting this

People need to see the other side of what's happening over there.

[newthinking]

2. Thank you - More people need to understand that this was a neocon operation and there are reasons

for everything that has happened. International Republican Institute and Poland trained Right Sector members to overthrow the government. Remember McCain there? He is heavily involved in the IRI.

Lots of propaganda. Putin has mostly been reacting in this case.

Ukraine **annexed** Crimea some years ago. They never wanted to be part of Ukraine and the "Autonomous Republic" was the compromise. Crimea had it's own Constitution and Parliament via the compromise. But Ukraine overruled the compromise and rewrote Crimea's constitution, effectively removing much of their independence. Crimea had it's own Parliament, and they had the authority to request the referendum. It was not until after teh Crimean gov asked for help that Russia became involved.

So all of this is heavily propagandized and much more complicated than presented.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Have you read anything about Mearsheimer?

He said at one point earlier in his career that Ukraine should keep their nuclear weapons.
He also supported India's development of nuclear weapons. In addition he wanted Germany to have a nuclear arsenal.

He has had an interesting academic career. His is one view. It isn't the only one and for it to be trumpted as the sine que non about the Ukraine is one-sided to say the least.

This effort to paint Putin as a put upon leader who is only responding to events is naive. That very well is probably part of his reasoning. However, he is not some innocent leader only intent on protecting Russia.

[malaise]

4. It all started with Bushco's neo-con velvet revolutions

This is all Washington consensus BS - one more yard sale of a country's assets to the West and control of their economy by the IMF and other multilateral agencies. The first thing they seize is the Central Bank.

[Igel]

5. I rather like the idea of a "backyard".

The US' backyard would be rather extensive, and so it shouldn't be any problem essentially dictating to a number of countries what their economies and politics should be.

And if they don't like it, invade. Because that's okay now.

There are some irritating Caribbean countries that could use some "brotherly guidance" at the official level.

And suddenly everybody's all happy about historical US interference in places like Guatemala. I can see it now, protesters marching with signs, "Hands on Honduras! Up with US Imperialism!"

That's where a lot of this thinking leads.

Either that, or the US is just always wrong by definition. That's a belief, however, and in a strict separation of religion and government ...

[malaise]

8. Well I suggest you read up on the Monroe Doctrine

and the Platt Amendment.

[joshcryer]

11. Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Warsaw Pact are more apt.

They explain pretty much unequivocally explain why bloc states joined NATO as opposed to sitting around fretting about Russia dominating them again.



Iron curtain, indeed.

[another_liberal]

15. Does the Soviet Union still exist?

If so, it's certainly news to me!

[pampango]

24. No but a certain Russian politician considers its demise "the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the

20th century."

Given the Soviet military victories over and occupation of several small countries depicted in the maps in the post you are responding to the above is an odd sentiment for a modern politician to have. I don't see many similar quotes from German politicians who fondly remember the days when Germany occupied most of Europe, North Africa and Western Russia.

[another_liberal]

29. If I were Russian, I might agree with him . . .

Not being so, I have go with the use of atomic weapons on civilian targets, the Vietnam War, or the rise of America's mega-wealthy class (our country had less than twenty billionaires in 1974, but today we have well over two thousand of them).

[pampango]

33. I agree with you. It is odd to me that Putin does not agree with you, too.

I would add to your list: WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, the Great Depression, China's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution which killed millions.

The demise of an imperialist power that conquered and occupied many countries for decades seems like an odd thing to consider to be the "greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century". My guess is there are few Germans who view the collapse of Nazi fascism as a 'tragedy' even though Germany conquered and occupied many, many countries.

[davidpdx]

19. Sweden and Finland are going to join NATO

I guess that means Russia can invade Finland next.

[sabrina 1]

34. You are confusing the United States with the Neocon policies that ARE always wrong, unless

you were a supporter of them so far and believe still that Iraq 'did' 9/11, was aiming its WMDs at the US and that we were only going there to 'create a democracy'. The 'US' doesn't have much say about those policies.

So no, the US is NOT always wrong, in fact a majority of its people OPPOSE and DID oppose those policies which is why they had to spend MILLIONS of dollars to try to SELL those policies to the 'US' people, using fear to do so.

[another_liberal]

6. So Vicky Nuland is the wife of a founding member of "The Project for the New American Century?"

That goes a long way toward explaining several things. What it doesn't explain is why she is still a high level diplomat working for a Democratic administration!

Thanks, nationalize the fed, for an excellent OP.

[pampango]

21. Of course, women are defined by their husbands' views. Are men defined by their wives' views?

Is there a man in the Obama administration whom we can cast aspersions on because of who his wife is and what she believes?

[another_liberal]

26. Oh, I think she is well represented by her own views alone . . .

Her husband's association with a foremost organization of imperialistic fascists not withstanding.

[pampango]

35. Then, as we do with men, lets talk about her own views, not her spouse's. n/t

[another_liberal]

42. Ok, She is awful . . .

The woman is literally a negative force in the realm of our foreign policy. She should be fired for cause.

[hack89]

22. She was Bill Clinton's deputy director for former Soviet Union affairs.

she was also U.S. ambassador to NATO and a special envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty negotiations. She is fluent in Russian.

She is there because she is a recognized State Department expert on Russia and Europe.

[another_liberal]

25. More is the pity then.

It's past time we relied on some different "recognized experts" for a change.

[hack89]

28. She is doing a good job

the fact that she has folks like you so riled up is proof of that.

[another_liberal]

30. Sure she is . . .

[pampango]

36. I doubt that Ms. Nuland has said "Fuck the EU!" nearly as often as Mr. Putin has.

I suspect this is one sentiment that Ms. Nuland and Mr. Putin (and the far-right throughout Europe) share.

[another_liberal]

43. Mr. Putin doesn't represent my country . . .

Nor does he pretend to.

[hack89]

37. She is there to look after US interests

just as the EU looks after theirs. They don't always match.

[another_liberal]

44. She represents US interests . . .

As long as those interests can be made to coincide with the interests of the "Second American Century" crowd, that is.

[MattSh]

38. She's doing a good job because she got somebody riled up?

Is the her qualifications for the job, or were there other qualifications. If so, explain.

[Nye Bevan]

7. Should Ukraine be allowed to join NATO if it wants to? (nt)

[another_liberal]

13. And another question . . .

Will there even be a functioning government in Kiev that can enter negotiations concerning NATO membership?

http://rt.com/news/183396-kiev-poroshenko-military-protest/

[Nye Bevan]

16. So a few hundred people held a demonstration.

Not sure what this has to do with the existence of "a functioning government".

[another_liberal]

17. That is only one of many such demonstrations in western Ukraine . . .

The story of protests against the Kiev government's senseless waste of lives and money on Poroshenko's failed "anti-terrorism operation" is almost completely unreported in the Western press. Yet they are becoming numerous and widespread.

Like the Separatists' counter-offensive, which was also not covered in the West at first, I'm sure the anti-war movement in Ukraine will eventually get a little air time on CNN (maybe after they dream up some way to blame it all on Russia).

[polly7]

39. +1000 nt.

[MattSh]

41. Maybe this helps...

Large parts of the country, including 90%+ of Kiev, have been without hot water for 5 weeks.

Maximum heat this winter is likely to be 60F, and there's no guarantee that with that cutback there will be enough gas for the winter. Some officials believe gas will run out in February. Remember, Kiev is further north than all of the USA, except Alaska.

Schools may be open 6 days a week this fall, just in case they want to shut down the schools for January and February because of lack of heat.

From January to July the rate of manufacturing fell 5.8% and just over July the industrial sector lost additional 12%. Mining industry took the biggest hit with a 28.7% loss, followed by car manufacturing (-23.8%), chemical (-22.2%), refining industry (-15.9%), rubber manufacturing (-13.8%), metallurgy (-12.3%) and furniture manufacturing (-12.5%). War-torn Lugansk and Donetsk Regions lost 56% and 28.5% of their manufacturing capacity. The crisis with components delivery from Donbass has in turn caused a shutdown of industrial giant ZAZ. The manufacturer lost 98.9% of its output and looks like it will close doors by October, leaving 21,000 workers unemployed.

There's going to be a lot of poor, unemployed, and pissed-off people soon enough. And some would argue the government is already not functioning.

On Edit: Oh, and rolling blackouts to conserve electricity, because coal mining has all but shut down.

[another_liberal]

45. Well said!

Thank you for pointing those aspects of the situation.

[SidDithers]

9. ...

Sid

[joshcryer]

10. Surprise, former members of the Warsaw Pact move away from Russia influence.

[stonecutter357]

12. .

[geek tragedy]

14. Ukraine is not Russia's backyard, it is a sovereign state. Also, he whines about

the US supporting a pro-democracy movement. Tells you everything you need to know.

More garbage for the reflexive anti-American crowd.

[randome]

20. No one could have put it better!

Think of the tragedy we cause by offering to unite the world with alliances. Oh, we are such bastards!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game. -Existenz[/center][/font][hr]

[KittyWampus]

31. I don't think it's just an "reflexive anti-American crowd" on DU. It's about feeling superior-

smarter.

These cranks REALLY know what's going on.

The rest of us are authoritarians, Obamabots, gullible.

I honesty think that is a big part of this.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

18. In the early 2000s, the Austrian government formed a coalition government with Neo-Nazis

Austria faced international condemnation.

In 2014 the Kiev government formed a coalition with Neo-Nazis and it receives economic and military aid. What a difference 10 years make.

[KittyWampus]

32. Did Austria NEED economic and military aid?

[NuclearDem]

23. Ugh.

How many times are you people going to keep posting "fuck the EU" completely devoid of context?

[bemildred]

27. Yes, exactly, a "March of Folly", to use Ms Tuchman's term, if I ever saw one.

Last edited Thu Sep 4, 2014, 09:04 AM - Edit history (1)

Mearsheimer hits all the points of the argument very well.

[Blue_Tires]

40. I can tell people are getting scared

because I'm seeing more and more of these "This is all Washington's fault" stories like we're the ones who invaded Ukraine...

Methinks they doth protest too much...

[another_liberal]

46. We invaded alright, with dollars used to destabilize the government . . .

What was it, five billion U.S. taxpayers' dollars spent over six years to gin-up a domestic opposition?

We thought that once President Yanukovich was ousted everything would just fall into place neatly: The Ukrainian economy would ours to loot. Ukrainian resources would be ours to exploit for a song. The Black Sea Fleet's bases would be ours to use, and NATO land bases would be within two hundred miles of Moscow.

It was all going to be so easy, or so our masters in the all-powerful One Percent mistakenly thought anyway.