tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9069955.post6045272164580139053..comments2023-10-26T08:02:44.948-04:00Comments on Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State: Ukraine, Yanukovych’s Day Of FearDon Pescihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167988001948356357noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9069955.post-70055960862894242042014-03-05T11:33:26.402-05:002014-03-05T11:33:26.402-05:00Had to attend the dentist office yesterday. The wo...Had to attend the dentist office yesterday. The woman handing the dentist the drill is Ukrainian, Russian husband, American kids with no dual citizenship. She appeared less upset about Putin's incursion than I am about our own failure to protect U.S. sovereignty against illegal immigration. She agreed with Conrad Black that Ukraine might be divided east and west.<br /><br />As Don Rumsfeld says, options are few when we've driven ourselves into a cul de sac. And, driving into a cul de sac is more likely when our commander in chief is driving while purposeless. Driving with no purpose all that can be done when the commander doesn't care about our country or its interests vis a vis the other nations on the planet.<br /><br />The U.S. very probably has more commitments abroad than we are capable of keeping. (And, certainly more than Obama is either interested in or capable of keeping.) A reconsideration of our national interests after the Cold War has not been accomplished except in a hap hazard, ad hoc, reactionary manner. It's not to say we have no interest in Ukraine, just to say that I haven't heard a public discussion about what it might be, and I haven't heard a declaration of our interest there from any Prez since 1989. While the U.S. has an interest in upholding the law of nations, if not in upholding the "human rights" clap-trap, international law is not in and of itself sufficient to justify military action. (I believe, at this point, that I was mistaken to have supported the 1990 Gulf War.)<br /><br />Whatever our international commitments, our military should be strong, or as strong as possible given the pressure our welfare state will be putting on the budget. President Obama is cutting the military budget with no consideration to national interest, without establishing what our actual military needs might be. And, his feckless policies have created a power vacuum from northern Africa, through the middle East, to the South China Sea. We need to pray not only that things don't completely fall apart in the next three years, but also that we'll be able in the course of the coming years to fix the messes this worst of Presidents will have left.<br /><br />And, let's pray that Conrad Black is correct in his relatively cheery prognostication.<br />------<br />Ukraine Will Prevail<br />By Conrad Black<br />March 5, 2014 7:00 AM<br /><br />From my most recent NRO article, on Putin’s overreach and the future of Ukraine: “Ukraine will be independent, possibly after a partition to save Russia’s ill-favored face, possibly even after repulsing a general Russian assault, and it will join the West. German influence will prevail over Russian in Eastern Europe, and the West will ultimately show Russia the way to being a great nationality not only in cultural, folkloric, and geographic terms, but as a civil society.”peter brushnoreply@blogger.com