US Warmongers vs. Merkel; Why Ukraine is None of Our Business

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Published : February 07th, 2015
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Category : Opinions and Analysis

A huge rift between Europe and the US has opened up in regards to dealing with the situation in Ukraine. The US hawks led by Senator John McCain want to send arms to Ukraine, but German chancellor Angela Merkel sees things much differently.

Chancellor Merkel says Ukraine Crisis Won't be Solved by Military Means.

Speaking at the Munich security conference on Saturday, the German chancellor said she wanted to secure peace in Europe with Russia and not against it.

Germany has opposed aiding Ukrainian troops for fear of worsening the conflict, which has already cost more than 5,000 lives, but the idea has many supporters in Washington.

I cannot imagine any situation in which improved equipment for the Ukrainian army leads to President Putin being so impressed that he believes he will lose militarily,” Merkel said. “I have to put it that bluntly.
Merkel, Hollande Visit Putin

On Friday, French president Francois Hollande and Chancellor Merkel took the unusual step of flying to Russia to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The five-hour meeting ended with a Promise of More Talks. Details are scant which likely means little progress was made.

McCain Blames US for Ukraine’s Use of Custer Bombs

Meanwhile back in the states, head warmonger Senator John McCain says US Partially to Blame for Ukraine’s Use of Custer Bombs.
The US is partially responsible for Ukraine’s indiscriminate use of cluster bombs in the country’s east, US Senator John McCain told Russia’s Sputnik news agency. According to McCain, it is due to the US failing to send Kiev other arms.

I think that if we had provided them with the weapons they need, they wouldn’t have felt they had to use cluster bombs. So, it’s partially our fault,” said McCain.
Lawmakers to Obama - Arm Ukraine Now

Congress seldom unites on anything but war. And here we go again. The Hill reports Lawmakers to Obama - Arm Ukraine Now.
The White House came under bipartisan pressure from both sides of the Capitol to provide weapons to Ukraine Thursday.

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee made a big push on the issue, while a bipartisan group of House members called for the same course of action in a letter.

"The United States must act with urgency to provide defensive lethal assistance to Ukraine," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

"Russia's invasion of sovereign territory of Ukraine, which has continued unabated in the face of political and economic sanctions, is the gravest threat to European security in decades," he said.

Meanwhile, the group of House lawmakers said that the administration needed to provide weapons to Ukraine to deter further Russian aggression.

"We are calling on the Administration to increase its support for Ukraine. Tighter sanctions and greater humanitarian assistance should be part of that support, but now, more than ever, the U.S. must supply Ukraine with the means to defend itself," they said in their letter.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member on the House Intelligence committee, was the lead signatory on the letter. He was joined by more than 30 Republicans and Democrats.
McCain Calls for Bill Requiring the President to Arm Ukraine

Reuters reports McCain calls for bill requiring U.S. arms to Ukraine if Obama does not act.
U.S. lawmakers will write legislation requiring the United States to send arms to Ukraine if President Barack Obama does not move to send weapons, Republican Senator John McCain said on Thursday.

McCain led about a dozen Republican and Democratic senators at a news conference in pressing Obama to send arms to help Kiev defend itself against a Russian-backed separatist movement.

"We'll be looking at marking up legislation that calls for it," McCain said.
Dead-on-Arrival

That's yet another ridiculous dead-on-arrival proposal.

Why Ukraine is None of Our Business

A CATO Institute commentary by Doug Bandow accurately explains U.S. Should Stay Out of the Russo-Ukrainian Quarrel: Why the Conflict in Ukraine Isn’t America’s Business.
Fighting over the Donetsk airport between Ukraine’s military and separatist forces backed by Russia has flared anew. The U.S. has begun providing heavier weapons as well as personnel training to Kiev. The conflict could go on for a long time, with Kiev and Moscow locked in a small hot war and the U.S. and Russia stuck in a larger Cold War lite. An extended confrontation would be in no one’s interest, especially America’s.

The U.S. has made a habit of promiscuously meddling around the world. The results rarely have been pretty. Thousands of Americans have been killed, tens of thousands have been wounded, hundreds of thousands of foreigners have died, and a multitude of international furies have been loosed.

At least none of these conflicts involved a real military power. In contrast, advocates of confrontation with Russia over Ukraine want to challenge a nation armed with nuclear weapons and an improving conventional military, steeped in nationalist convictions, rooted in historic traditions, and ruled by a tough authoritarian. No one should assume that in a military showdown the Kremlin would yield to Washington or that war with Moscow would be a cakewalk.

Yet Ukraine’s most fervent advocates assume that any American who fails to believe that, say, inaugurating global nuclear war to save their distant ethnic homeland is a Putin troll, Russian agent, friend of dictators, proto-communist fellow traveler, or even worse.

there is at least a Baker’s Dozen of good reasons for America to stay out of today’s messy, tragic, and bloody conflict involving Ukraine and Russia. The first six are reason enough:

  1. Ukraine isn’t important geographically
  2. Russia matters more than Ukraine to America
  3. Blame is widely shared for Ukraine’s travails
  4. Washington never guaranteed Ukraine’s security
  5. Vladimir Putin is not Hitler and Russia is not Nazi Germany (or Stalin’s Soviet Union)
  6. There’s no genocide
Bandow goes over every point in detail. Please give it a read.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Data and Statistics for these countries : Germany | Russia | Ukraine | All
Gold and Silver Prices for these countries : Germany | Russia | Ukraine | All
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Mike Shedlock / Mish is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. He writes a global economics blog which has commentary 5-7 times a week. He also writes for the Daily Reckoning, Whiskey & Gunpowder, and has over 80 magazine and book cover credits. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com
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Trigger happy Americans are easily mislead by the government agencies and the press. You can lie to Americans again and again, and it always works. The rest of the world thought that they would learn something from the big failure of Irak. In vain. They have learned nothing.

In this case is even worse, because the crisis has been created by the Americans themselves. Only look at McCain and Nuland in Kiev last year.
Rate :   1  0Rating :   1
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Hi Mish,

Nobody wants to get involved but what message does Putin take away from appeasement or capitulation?
If the West shows weakness, would you like to be a citizen of the other former Soviet countries whose ethnicity has been salted deliberately by Russian plants since WW II?
I've not forgotten that capitulation in similar circumstances licenced Mr Hitler to liberate German speakers wherever they were.

I normally agree with you but don't follow your reasoning in this instance.

Cheers,

Louis
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Try reading again and again until you get it. But before you do, give yourself a rest from Australian news for a week, where police shooting own citizens under any pretext is not much of a news any more and is not reminiscent of an Evil Empire. And ask yourself :"How am I going to capitulate in Ukraine? What do I actually know about Ukraine? What do I know about differences between Ukrainians and Russians?" Maybe CIA actually did install regime emanating from WWII Nazis there, to kill its own people and draw Russia into crippling intervention?"
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Here's some more explaining for you:
http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-the-us-suicidal-strategy-on-ukraine.aspx?article=6391441650H11690&redirect=false&contributor=Chris+Martenson
Rate :   1  0Rating :   1
EmailPermalink
Hi Mish,

Nobody wants to get involved but what message does Putin take away from appeasement or capitulation?
If tghe West shows weakness, would you like to be a citizen of the other former Soviet countries whose ethnicity has been salted deliberately by Russian plants since WW II?
I've not forgotten that capitulation in similar circumstances licenced Mr Hitler to liberate German speakers wherever they were.

I normally agree with you but don't follow your reasoning in this instance.

Cheers,

Louis
Rate :   4  2Rating :   2
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Latest comment posted for this article
Trigger happy Americans are easily mislead by the government agencies and the press. You can lie to Americans again and again, and it always works. The rest of the world thought that they would learn something from the big failure of Irak. In vain. They  Read more
jox - 2/13/2015 at 9:40 AM GMT
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