Nothing wrong with Vice President Joe Biden’s travel to Ukraine to symbolically show solidarity, but one wonders what he’ll actually accomplish given the problems of the United States putting forward a solid peace through strength message.
Putin
may be crazy or may be crazy like a fox, either way, after snatching Crimea he
seems in the mood to test the West just to see how far he can go. A professed
Soviet throwback, I’m starting to wonder if he will be cowed by expanding to NATO
allies in Eastern Europe, thinking: What’s
the West going to do? More appropriately, what’s the United States going to do?
President
Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney assured America last week, “We’re not in a Cold
War because I think it’s important to remember what the dynamics of the Cold
War were. You had two super powers, you had two economic blocs, you had two
military blocs. There aren’t two of any of those things today. Russia is not
the Soviet Union; there is no Warsaw Pact."
As
a native of Poland, I’ll assert that there will not be another Warsaw Pact,
thank you very much. But that doesn’t mean Russia won’t establish other
alliances in Putin’s zeal to be a world power again. So other countries should realize why it's not advantageous to align themselves with Russia.
President
Obama’s remark that Russia is a “regional power” was more trash talk than tough
talk. It might have hit Putin’s ego, but has done little to give him pause.
Weak sanctions and vague talk of “additional costs” is not causing anyone to
quiver.
There
should be real sanctions – including on Putin’s assets. Not only to be clear
that Putin cannot continue this behavior but also to discourage other heads of
state from throwing in with him.
Western
Europe has more to lose from these sanctions on an economic basis. But they
would be willing to look at the long game of quietening Putin and other potential
thugs if the U.S. leads the way.
But
that leadership can’t come in the form of meaningless sanctions and trash talk.
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