Ukraine 2-4-2015

4, February 2015                   Ukraine

Putin has become the new whipping boy, the new Saddam Hussein, the piñata beaten by the US media onto the march to a new proxy war with the big bad wolf, Russia.

Gorbachev is right - we have started a new Cold War encircling our old nemesis with military bases and missiles and vilifying Russia for any resistance.  We have encouraged a coup in Ukraine, a coup that is wildly anti-Russian, and deeply hostile to the welfare of ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine who have lived there for centuries.

The separatists are not fighting in Kiev, but the Ukrainian military is fighting and killing ethnic Russians. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the Ukrainian military of committing war crimes.

In perhaps a careless unguarded moment, President Obama admitted that the CIA was directly involved in  the ouster of the former democratically elected government in Kiev.  Following crippling sanctions, which only hurt the poor (remember Cuba, Iraq), the Obama administration -  fearing a back lash from war hawk Republicans, has promised to send military weapons to Kiev which would surely only intensify the conflict.

America should back off and let Merkel (who speaks Russian) and Putin work out the details of a peaceful settlement – a federal system giving far more autonomy to eastern Ukraine allowing it to preserve its language and culture.  The agreement should include a provision that Ukraine would maintain its independence from Russia and NATO.