Mitch PerryWhen it comes to the United States’s role in the world, Barack Obama can do no right in the eyes of his Republican critics on Capitol Hill (Come to think of it, they’re not in too enamored with his domestic policies, either).
For months there have been hawks in Congress such as John McCain who say the U.S. should send lethal arms to Ukraine, as they battle Russia “expansion” from the east.
Last week Florida Sen. Bill Nelson joined McCain in calling for the U.S. to step up, and told this reporter Friday, “It is the Russian army that is invading from the east. And these poor people, they just can’t go up against a Russian tank. Even though the Russians are saying it’s not their troops, well, in fact it is, they just put on a different uniform. I visited with all of the Ukrainian government leaders last August. I called for lethal assistance then. We’ve given them about $350 million dollars worth of assistance for some intelligence, some training, but they now need lethal arms.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, however, not only has been vague about whether the U.S. is willing to commit to providing such arms, but German leader Angela Merkel, who will be in Washington today to speak with Obama about the situation there, appears to be dead set against it.
And Obama? He is reported to be undecided on whether to specifically provide Ukraine with anti-tank artillery and an array of communications and other equipment.
Ted Cruz was on Fox News Sunday, bashing the president for not “honoring that obligation” to defend Ukraine. “We need to come together and provide defensive arms so that [Ukraine] can stand up against this Russian aggression,” he said.
Leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine announced Sunday that they plan four-way talks Wednesday to revisit a proposed peace plan for the region.
But New York Times foreign policy columnist Roger Cohen says that the only thing that Vladimir Putin will respond to is military force, not negotiations:
“Resolute-schmesolute: It’s time to get real over Putin. He has not poured tanks and multiple-launch rocket systems over the Ukrainian border because he is about to settle for anything less than a weak Ukraine, sapped by low-level conflict in the Donetsk region, a country with its very own pro-Russian enclave à la Abkhazia or Transnistria, firmly within the Russian sphere of influence: the symbol of his definitive strategic turn away from closer cooperation with the West toward the confrontation that shores him up as oil prices and the currency plunge. He will not let Ukraine go.
“There is a language Moscow understands: antitank missiles, battlefield radars, reconnaissance drones. Bolster the Ukrainian Army with them and other arms. Change Putin’s cost-benefit analysis. There are risks but no policy is risk-free. Recall that Ukraine gave up more than 1,800 nuclear warheads in exchange for that bogus commitment from Russia back in 1994 to respect its sovereignty and borders. Surely it has thereby earned the right to something more than night-vision goggles. The West’s current Ukraine diplomacy is long on illusion and short on realism. Two plus two equals four, in war and peace.”
The White House has been accused of a lack of leadership in not intervening in Syria to stop the bloodshed there. Now we have Russia and Ukraine? What will Obama do? Bet on not backing Merkel, in all probability.
In other news …
For some craft beer lovers of Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing, there was some alarm about the report in yesterday’s Tribune that Joey Redner was in “negotiations” with the epitome of the Big Beer Establishment, Anheuser Busch InBev. But Redner tells SaintPetersBlog/Florida Politics, “nothin’ down.”
And the Trib and Times gave their endorsements in next month’s Tampa City Council election over the weekend.
