Ukraine Crisis

[King]

Of course, it wouldn't be an international incident without John McCain demanding the USA jump into the pool.

[King]

Perhaps the best way to go about this is to find a way to make the Russian oligarchs sh**t their pants.

I think that's the strategy with the economic summit boycotts.

[King]

There will be a great musical made about this incident one day.

[King]

The interesting poll in Crimea would be three choices: autonomous state in Ukraine, autonomous state in Russia, or full independence.

An "independent" state of Crimea would be such a puppet joke, it shouldn't be considered.

[King]

I think the key fact, obviously, here is that Ukraine for better or worse isn't a NATO member. (Duh, I know).  If Putin decided to use his Putin Doctrine (hey, did I just invent a term?) to justify sending the Russian army to protect Russian minorities in say, the Baltic states, that's when the proverbial inks hits the fan. (turn and burn baby)  I highly doubt that he would, but the man has surprised me before.

It would be nice to have Ukraine in the NATO and EU sphere, but at the same time, it would also probably be a huge chore for both bodies to get a tumultuous Ukrainian government to follow through on any sort of resolutions.

[King]

I'm going to leave this here

Without hindsight, Obama was certainly right at the time and I'm still wondering how Romney arrived at the conclusion that Russia is America's "geopolitical foe no. 1". If anything, you had to name China from a 2012 perspective.

Or maybe Romney just had a modicum of foresight.

Romney's campaign was the opposite of being led by someone with foresight.

[King]

Russia is really, really weak. What's happening now is a meager attempt to try and restore national pride. They aren't anywhere close to being a major threat to US interests.

The worst thing we can do is treat them as somebody important when they're not.