President Obama Sends Definitive Message on Ukraine

The situation in the Ukraine does not exactly fill one with a firm belief that everything will work itself out without any bloodshed. According to the first Ukrainian to lead the nation after the fall of the Soviet Union, former President Kravchuk, there are currently minimally approximately eighteen-thousand Russian troops operating in the Crimea region of the Ukraine. Where the Ukraine works as strategically placed buffer state between Russia and Europe, the Crimea could be seen as the buffer region between Russia and the rest of the Ukraine as well as the vital link to the Black Sea providing Russia with a warm water port with access to the Black Sea and from there the Mediterranean Sea on into the Atlantic Ocean. There is no question that Russian President Vladimir Putin, I like to refer to him as Vlad the Invader, has taken and planning on retaining the entirety of the Crimean Peninsula. The big question is whether or not President Putin has any plans to invade the remainder of the Ukraine and after that would he continue his aggressions by continuing westward pushing Russian forces into Poland, northward across Belarus or southward into Romania. Then again, if President Putin’s aim is, as some have claimed is his goal, to reform Russian hegemonic control over all the areas which were formerly within the Warsaw Pact nations within the eastern parts of Europe within the Iron Curtain, then occupying the Ukraine is only his initial step. If Putin is planning to reassert Moscow’s iron-fisted control over the entirety of the domains which fell under the formidable control of the Soviet Union, then his eventual aim could likely be seen as forcing all of Europe into subservience to Moscow.

 

Meanwhile, United States President Barack Obama has appeared completely ineffectual and powerless in the face of President Putin’s aggressions. But if the leaked announcement move by the Pentagon is correct, that is about to change. A response from the United States may be imminent as units are to be deployed to Poland as a statement, a warning to Russian President Putin. The announcement referred to sending twelve F-16 aircraft and three-hundred American troops to Poland by the end of the week to reassure and defend American allies in the region and to be a show of force to convey the seriousness of America’s commitments to NATO and the treaties with the Ukraine among other nations. I am sure this almost marginal and miniscule commitment will be more of an amusement to President Putin and will be regarded as a message of President Obama’s increased flexibility which he had promised former Russian President Medvedev before the last elections. This show of force is just the latest example of the new President Obama America which stands as firm as jello when it comes to protecting former American allies or facing down threats to the status quo in the world which contrasts well with the forcefulness reserved for the former allies and friends of the United States. The American citizens voted twice for Hope and Change and a fundamental transformation of their country, and that is exactly what they are receiving. Unfortunately, that is also what the rest of the world is getting and we did not vote for that. For the immediate future, the Ukraine and its new leadership are left to squirm while being in the direct glaring and menacing stare of a cold former KGB enforcer become Russian President and his attitudes and reliance on force have remained from his days in Rumania.

 

The problem for the people and government of the Ukraine is that despite the weakness of the troop deployment by the United States, any expected assistance from the European nations will likely make this American deployment look formidable. Basically, the Ukrainians are going to be left on their own which hopefully they have realized by now. Of course, perhaps the Ukrainians should thank their lucky stars that President Barack Obama did not hold negotiations with Vlad the Invader and bring the indomitable European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and the stalwart United States Secretary of State John Kerry demanding they all meet in Munich to decide whether the peoples of the Crimea were really displaced Russians which had requested Russian protection. The Ukrainians would have faced the same destructive compromises which happened in the famous previous negotiations in Munich when the allies presented Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany by allowing a similar encroachment as we are facing with the Russian incursion into the Crimean peninsula of the Ukraine. There will be no demands for Putin to remove his forces. There will be no ramifications or deterring moves in order to force the Russians to reconsider and actually assist in the defense of the Ukraine. Should Vlad the Invader decide to take the remainder of the Ukraine, the rest of the world will be treated at most with another long and uninspiring speech from President Obama giving platitudes and kind explanations on how Russia had simply reconstituted the lands which had belonged to them since Czar Catherine the Great annexed these areas as part of Russia. The next threat might once again be an attack on Poland. The question is whether it will once again be a division of Poland between Angela and Vlad or will Vlad the Invader be selfish and demand all of Poland for Russia. Should Russian aggressions extend beyond the Ukraine, such an action might be a nation too far and force an actual and consequential response, even from President Obama. We can only pray that such a situation never comes to pass.

 

Beyond the Cusp