A Dirty Little Secret of US Foreign Policy on Crimea: There (Was) Not Much We Could Do
This article from 2014 details what I can summarize. President Obama can arguably be said to have had tepid moments when strength or more action was called for. Exaggerating that wildly as Trump does though misleads us profoundly. Reading the details really puts the lie to Trumps assertion the other day that Russia invading Crimea was somehow Obamas fault. The logic is non existent. The partisan stench stifling. Is every President responsible for every war not stopped? Or would that just be Obama at Trumps sudden convenience?
President Trump you wanted the job, you got the job and the bucks that manage to escape your dirty pockets still stop with you and your office.
…Indeed, one is hard-pressed to find a single person in Washington who believes the US should send actual American soldiers to Ukraine – even if Russia truly escalates the crisis and send its troops into Eastern Ukraine.
All of which raises a quite serious and legitimate question: what the hell are we arguing about?
If the US is not prepared to put troops on the ground? If we’re not willing to use military force? If we’re content with taking the biggest tool in the US toolbox off the table, then how exactly is the United States supposed to reverse Russia’s seizure of the Crimea? Our vast military capabilities won’t mean much to Putin if he knows we aren’t willing to use them.
Here’s the dirty little secret of the foreign-policy pundit/expert orgy on what to do about Crimea: the US has at its disposal very few levers with which to change Russia’s behavior, at least in the near-term. We can cancel multilateral summits and military training (already done); we can deny visas to Russian officials (just beginning); we can even ramp up bilateral economic sanctions and try to build support among key European allies for a larger, more invasive sanctions regime (under discussion).
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