General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Who's wreaked more international havoc lately? US or Russia? [View all]PATRICK
(12,228 posts)Certainly the West is entangled in countering or frustrating centuries old Russian needs and desires. It seems to me, rigged vote or no, that none of the players give a damn about the Crimean citizens. "Public support" outside the media and government hoopla is probably non-existent especialy when it comes to taking harsh action to redeliver the Crimean Russian back to the Ukraine.
If Russia wins this it intimidates everyone and advances the Russian empire rebuilding wherever Russians are found. This is similar I suppose to Hitlers beneficent annexing of various chunks of Europe. The rest of the West, I suppose, learned enough from Chamberlain not to SOUND like appeasement, but the results will be the same. Long term, these kind of shakedowns will increases under any dedicated or ambitious Russian regime.
The Ukraine, the government at least, will posture defiance. None of the governments with the possible exception of Putin who after all is giving the majority of Crimeans what they want- is doing anything but bluster indignantly over the failure of THEIR policy toward Russia.
Seeding and taking advantage of chaos has been everyone's game. Far better if actual democratic reform had been the chief and only goal. The rapid collapse of the Soviet Empire left the old lines intact, lines often formed to include a Russian balance. Instead of resolving these future dangers they were instead exploited on all sides and within. One part of the game plan no doubt would have been to overthrow Russia with new oligarchs or weaklings. That didn't happen. And still the posturing goes on.
For any all world leaders who advocate warlike gestures or retaliation sanity calls for global censure and having all their butts hauled to the world court, but the people these clowns profess to represent are unlikely to see that a simple apocalypse for the few will avoid calamity for the world.