crsutton
Posts: 9590
Joined: 12/6/2002 From: Maryland Status: offline
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Well, I will not take sides on this nor am I saying any of it is right as far as Russia goes. However, I remind everyone here of the Monroe Doctrine and US policy about intervention with our immediate neighbors. I am not happy about the course that Russia is steering but to say that they have no right to be concerned about a bordering country with a large ethnic Russian population is just naive. The US has taken military, political and economic action to pressure neighboring countries to reflect out interests and protect our citizens. This includes direct military interventions in Cuba,Nicaragua,Panama,Grenada,Haiti,Mexico,Costa Rica,El Salvador and others, and we have helped engineer political coups in many other countries. I am not saying that this policy is right or wrong. Sometimes it has been justified-sometimes not. But what I am saying is that the Ukraine is definitely in the Russian sphere of influence, and although we can get mad and blow a lot of hot air, save for going to war, there is very little we (the US) can do in this region. Russia has been many times the brute in this region but the face of Ukrainian nationalism has been very ugly at times. Lots of Jews and Poles can attest to that. I think it is time to take a step back and look at the whole situation rather than be so hasty with our opinions. The history of this area is complex and tragic. Don't allow yourself to be fooled by the media. This situation has a lot more to do with a serious and dangerous ethnic conflict than it has to do with a fight to embrace democracy.
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I am the Holy Roman Emperor and am above grammar. Sigismund of Luxemburg
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