IIRC Bush announced the business day was over and invited his staff and cohorts to Happy Hour. Am I right?
Please excuse my utter and complete ignorance on the subject but why does the US care if Russia invades Ukraine? Yes this is a serious question, politics have never interested me until recently.
Please excuse my utter and complete ignorance on the subject but why does the US care if Russia invades Ukraine? Yes this is a serious question, politics have never interested me until recently.
Good question - bottomline, huge strategic value to the US and EU to separate Ukraine from Russia, and admittance into the EU and NATO (which would take years). Then what would stop the US to position american troops right on the doorstep of the kremlin.That has never been done before and other presidents have tried - all have failed. Ukraine has strategic value being that they are a border county to Russia and was part of the previous USSR structure. Ukraine has long had an allegiance to Russia, mainly because Russia supplies Ukraine with natural gas/oil and other financial and economic needs. The Bush administration attempted to test Russia foreign policy by trying to tilt both Georgia and Ukraine into the EU and into NATO alliance. This would have been a huge strategic and political defeat to Putin and Russia, long story short - it did not happen.
Please excuse my utter and complete ignorance on the subject but why does the US care if Russia invades Ukraine? Yes this is a serious question, politics have never interested me until recently.
Fairly simple, you are looking at the remnants of the old Soviet Union here and the biggest chunk. Russia has already got Kazakshtan and Belorus back into their new Soviet Union, the Eurasian Union. They were trying to rope the Ukraine back into band. The Maidan revolt was against the reintegration into the Russian Empire. If the west abandons Ukriane you are looking basically a return to your Cold War era sphere of Russian influence and domination because countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Estonia and likely Poland and Slovakia are going to realize the west can't or won't help them in the face of Putin's aggression. I realpolitik concerns you are allowing the reformation of another major power to operate counter to the wishes of the West. Unlike the last time we slapped the Soviets down the Chinese are a much, MUCH bigger player. You can effectively kiss good bye the moment of the wave of freedom that started in the 1990s. That is a less stable, less free and less prosperous world. Toss on top of that that the USA is party toot one but two agreements (Budapest Agreement) and a NATO declaration that affirm the sovereignty and territorial integrity and inviability of the Ukraine so international credible beyond Eastern Europe is on the line. Also, of course, the is the moral component that Putin is a human rights violating dictatorial douchebag and he's not concerned about Russians being second class citizens in Crimea because they are already second class citizens in Russia.
And there is the part where the recent actions of the US in other areas of the world haven't been successful, i.e. the Arab spring, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and now Iraq, and the rest of the world which looked at the US as a solid, dependable partner gets to watch as sand in kicked in the US's proverbial face... And in a game where perceived strength is huge, well the US has been pissing any positive perceptions away... proverbially speaking. jmvho
