War in Europe

I doubt that Russia has the will to keep after Ukraine for more than a couple of months, especially considering the sanctions that are going to fall on Russia here.  And Russia does not have the numbers of troops to completely subjugate a country as big and populous as Ukraine.  What is unfortunate is that Belarus and Moldova appear to be working with the Russians.  Hopefully, Ukraine can hold the line for long enough to take the air out of Russia's attack to force everyone to the table to end this thing.

I wish that the European democracies were more committed to preserving European democracies against Putin.  A lot of times, it is hard to differentiate the good country from the evil country, but it is obvious here.  The good countries should all commit to save the good democratic country from the autocratic one.  At the same time, the other countries need to make sure that Ukraine is in a position to defend itself moving forward, because the democratic countries cannot continuously bail out a country on Russia's border.

I also wish that China would come out against Russia here.  I doubt that it happens, but China can pretty much stop the invasion dead in its tracks, whenever it wants.

But the United States cannot get that involved in this stage of the invasion for two reasons.  The first is that, as much as I am pulling for Ukraine here, we cannot weaken our ability to assist more vital countries like Taiwan, especially as China grows ever more aggressive.  Additionally, we cannot provide China and Russia (or anyone else) a pretext to start building up troops and/or military assets in Cuba, Nicaragua or Venezuela.  (Or anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere for that matter.)  For China or Russia to do that would be unacceptable.  The same is true of the United States getting involved now.

God bless Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in their fight with Russia!

We're not worried about Russian sanctions against the West.  The entire Russian economy is equivalent in size to Texas'.   I'm not surprised that Russia is making nuclear threats.  That is to be expected. What else have they got to threaten us with?

Mail order brides?

I mean Putin invaded Chechnya, and we did nothing.  Putin invaded Georgia, and we did nothing.  Putin invaded the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, and we did nothing.  Putin now invades the Ukraine.

What is left for Putin to invade?  He won't invade the Baltic States.  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have already invoked Article 4 of NATO. Article 4 has only been invoked seven times in NATO's history.  I think that a lot of this is to try and convince nations like Finland to not be so cozy with the West.  You don't want to end up like Ukraine, do you Finland?

OMG!  My man!  There is oil over there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What in holy hell?!?!?!?!?!?

If we cared more about energy, Ukraine probably never would have been invaded in the first place.  I mean, one of the big reasons that Putin took the Crimea is that it has a stupid amount of gas and oil, considering its size.  The area Northeast of Kiev running Southeast toward Donetsk also has a stupid amount of gas and oil, considering their size.  Basically, we allowed Russia to rob Ukraine of some of its most profitable areas, while we reduced production (almost 20% in the past 13+ months!)  and bought more of the oil that Russia stole from the Ukraine.  And then we are shocked and horrified, when Russia marches into the Ukraine in vehicles fueled by Ukrainian gas that were built using money that we shipped to Russia, instead of working to increase energy production in the Western Hemisphere.

I would add that the third large oil fields in Ukraine are in the far west of the country, next to the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.  Lviv and its immediate environs in the West of Ukraine need to be defended.  Allowing those areas of the country to fall into Putin's hands gives a truly evil despot even more money and power and weakens our allies.

If we were serious about stopping Russia:

1.    We stop buying their oil.  We work with Canada and Mexico or even Venezuela to drill Western Hemisphere oil.  We get Europe and our allies in Africa and the Far East to go along.  We don't buy conflict diamonds.  We demand that all free people do not fill their cars with conflict oil.
2.    We stop selling Russia food.  Specifically, we convince Europe and the OAS countries to turn off sales to Russia.  Food is a privilege for peoples not ruled by sociopaths.  The Western Hemisphere are huge food exporters.  Russia is a huge food importer.  If we stop shipping food to Russia, Russia does not have the food to mount an invasion.  Hungry people riot in the streets; they do not invade their neighbors.

OMG!  My man!  There is oil over there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What in holy hell?!?!?!?!?!?

If we cared more about energy, Ukraine probably never would have been invaded in the first place.  I mean, one of the big reasons that Putin took the Crimea is that it has a stupid amount of gas and oil, considering its size.  The area Northeast of Kiev running Southeast toward Donetsk also has a stupid amount of gas and oil, considering their size.  Basically, we allowed Russia to rob Ukraine of some of its most profitable areas, while we reduced production (almost 20% in the past 13+ months!)  and bought more of the oil that Russia stole from the Ukraine.  And then we are shocked and horrified, when Russia marches into the Ukraine in vehicles fueled by Ukrainian gas that were built using money that we shipped to Russia, instead of working to increase energy production in the Western Hemisphere.

I would add that the third large oil fields in Ukraine are in the far west of the country, next to the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.  Lviv and its immediate environs in the West of Ukraine need to be defended.  Allowing those areas of the country to fall into Putin's hands gives a truly evil despot even more money and power and weakens our allies.

If we were serious about stopping Russia:

1.    We stop buying their oil.  We work with Canada and Mexico or even Venezuela to drill Western Hemisphere oil.  We get Europe and our allies in Africa and the Far East to go along.  We don't buy conflict diamonds.  We demand that all free people do not fill their cars with conflict oil.
2.    We stop selling Russia food.  Specifically, we convince Europe and the OAS countries to turn off sales to Russia.  Food is a privilege for peoples not ruled by sociopaths.  The Western Hemisphere are huge food exporters.  Russia is a huge food importer.  If we stop shipping food to Russia, Russia does not have the food to mount an invasion.  Hungry people riot in the streets; they do not invade their neighbors.

Then, let me amend that. Though I think you know what I meant. 

If only Ukraine was selling large amounts of oil to the US like Russia is (or was, before sanctions).

Actually, rather than drilling in the Western Hemisphere for crude oil, we would be better served by weaning the country off the oil, so that we aren't beholden to the politics of other countries and we don't waste American lives fighting for an oil field in the middle of a desert. We should have made this push back in 1990 with Bush senior and the Iraq war. (More likely, before that during the Iran affairs, but I was too young to care, and I hate history.) Pour more resources into alternative energies. We can do it. And what a joy it would be. OPEC would be meaningless.