Revolutions
To me, one of the most fascinating and terrifying aspects of the the Ukraine situation is the peed with which the revolution happened. Overnight, the government fell in Kiev and chaos ensued. I cannot imagine what it was like to be the regional and city governments, or the police or the armed forces. Do you remain loyal to the "officially elected" government, even though it seems to be no longer in power - do you take matters in your own hands locally?
Ukraine is a nation of 46 million people; it is in the heart of Europe. At least on the surface it seemed to have a mature government infrastructure. I wonder if the same thing would happen in the US if someone took out the Federal government in DC?
Some decent op-eds on the UA situation:
Kissinger
Steve Chapman
Ukraine is a nation of 46 million people; it is in the heart of Europe. At least on the surface it seemed to have a mature government infrastructure. I wonder if the same thing would happen in the US if someone took out the Federal government in DC?
Some decent op-eds on the UA situation:
Kissinger
Steve Chapman
posted by e-kvetcher at 11:07 AM
4 Comments:
Remarkably, yesterday evening we were discussing the Ukraine and Henry Kissinger's realpolitik came up. The consensus was that Kissinger's approach would be to take both reality and historical issues into account, whereas the western Europeans and the U.S. seem to deliberately ignore history in this case. I note that the German and Polish responses seem less hell-bent on confrontationalism than the English and Americans. And that there is a refusal to accept Putin as a defining actor in this crisis, rather than as a spoiler upsetting the Europhilic love-affair. What seems also entirely missing is a realization that all three sides (pro-west Ukranians, pro-Russian Ukranians, and Russians) are behaving both entirely predictably, and entirely opportunistically.
It's not an ideological battle, nor a differnece of weltanschauungstypen, but strictly a conflit d'rapacities rivales.
The West will do nothing...
See here
Other than strident feel-good soundbytes, that is.
Loved Chapman's piece.
That Putin is a strongman and is leading Russia to ruin (economically) in the long run is obvious.
But the west will continue using regime change to swallow nations into its orbit. What business does John McCain have in instigating mob passions in Russia's doorstep. Is he mad?
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