The very deadly International Soap Opera in Crimea rolls on.
In an extraordinary day which redrew the map of Europe, fears were growing that widespread violence would erupt in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
An Ukrainian officer was killed in a confrontation in Simferopol, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an incendiary speech justifying Moscow’s reclamation of the former Ukrainian territory.
Several others were injured and the Ukrainian commander captured as the military facility in the Crimean capital was stormed by troops dressed in Russian camouflage kits and balaclavas.
The Ukrainian Prime Minister warned that “the conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage” and claimed that “Russian soldiers have started shooting at Ukrainian servicemen and that is a war crime”. His government, he added, has now authorised the use of firearms for its forces surrounded in their bases in Crimea.
However, there were indications that it was the separatist Crimean government’s recently created “Self Defence Forces” who had actually carried out the fatal attack. Local officials, meanwhile, claimed that “fascist snipers” had fired the first shot from a residential building and one of the injured was one of the defence force members.
The Ukrainian and Russian governments had agreed to a ceasefire until 21 March, aimed at preventing hostilities breaking out at the blockaded bases. But there was apprehension that the assault and the resultant death and injuries may break the delicate accord, with highly dangerous consequences.
The shooting began three and-a-half hours after Mr Putin had claimed Crimea for his country in a speech laced with invectives against the West and a robust reassertion of Russian power. At the end of his 66-minute address , punctuated by repeated applause, came the signing of documents which, the Kremlin declared, transferred control of Crimea from Ukraine to Russia once and for all.
There were expressions of outrage from the US, the European Union and the government in Kiev, but no immediate ratcheting up of the international sanctions Moscow has publicly derided as ineffectual. The G7 group of countries are to hold an emergency summit, at President Barack Obama’s request, in the Hague next week, when announcements of further measures are expected.
Obama recently issued sanctions against 7 Russian officials over Russia’s ongoing annexation of the Ukraine. They basically laughed in his face. In fact, one of them, a Deputy Foreign Minister, referred to Obama as a “prankster”.
Political Pundit Dr. Charles Krauthammer said about Obama’s announcement and the resulting laughter from Russia,
He’s being ridiculed by Russia, especially, because the statement and the policy are ridiculous. He doesn’t have a lot of cards, but he has some cards, and if he thinks that sanctioning seven Russians, out of a population of, what, 150 million, is a sanction, he’s living in a different world. The one thing that we could do is to respond to the Ukrainian request, when the president was here last week, they asked the Pentagon for weapons, and we said no, because somehow, to arm the victim of aggression is a provocation. … This response of, you know, we are not going to calibrate, as if Putin is, they’re going to sanction 11 Russians now, so I’ll have to stop where I am, is really preposterous. Again, if you’re going to do something, do it. Otherwise, say nothing, but this really is a humiliating response by a president who can’t even get the Europeans to join him in effective sanctions, which we could do.
“Humiliating” doesn’t even begin to describe Obama’s Foreign Policy ineptness.
Did you ever imagine, that in our lifetimes, we would hear the Leader of the Free World being referred to as a “prankster” in a International Crisis, such as this?
Now, we have had some pretty sorry United States Presidents during our life spans.
We had LBJ, who started the Great Society and effectively sentenced generations of Americans to live their lives dependent for their very survival on the Federal Government.
We had Richard M Nixon, who while a trendsetter in Foreign Policy, did not do so well in the Ethics Department.
Then we had Jimmy Carter, whom I have spoken of before, the peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, who served aboard a nuclear submarine and wound up being an ineffectual and incompetent commander in chief, whose Foreign and Domestic Policies put us in a hole as a nation which we thought that we would never climb out of.
And, how about old Billy Jeff Clinton, or “Bubba” as I call him. While thanks to a Republican Congress, he did manage to balance the budget, his foreign policy was weak and brought us such terrorist acts as the USS Cole and the one perpetrated in New York City by the Blind Shiek.
Which brings us to the Foreign Policy Debacle which we find ourselves in.
Obama’s weakness and inexperience at organizing anything more complicated than a community, has been apparent to our friends and foes alike for quite some time now.
And, that, boys and girls, is why Obama had to pull all Official American Personnels out of Syria, yesterday.
It is also why Iran is still building a nuclear bomb. They fear Obama and his Administration about as much as Charles Barkley fears dandruff.
On September 23, 2009, Obama said the following words to the United Nations General Assembly:
In an era when our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero-sum game. No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold. The traditional divisions between nations of the South and the North make no sense in an interconnected world; nor do alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War.
Evidently, Obama failed to tell Putin that the Cold War was “long-forgotten”.
Until He Comes,
KJ
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