Ukraine Crisis Is Too Complicated For The Sunday Shows- International Statecraft is not Junior High
April 30, 2014 12:00 am
By Gene Lyons
First comes the melodrama, next comes the killing. Good vs. evil, suffering innocents vs. swaggering bullies, heroes vs. villains. The Two Minutes Hate, Orwell called it the way of the world since the invention of mass media.
So it is during the current political crisis in the Ukraine. In the U.S. media, the identity of the Bad Guy has been clearly determined: Russian president Vladimir Putin, the one-time KGB operative with the hooded eyes.
The world has not yet forgotten World War Two, but Russia already wants to start World War Three, Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk has declared. He accuses Moscow of acting like a gangster, of supporting terrorists, and alleges that Putin wishes to build a new Berlin Wall.
So whats taking him so long? If Putin really wanted a shooting war in the Ukraine, hes had ample opportunities to start one since the overthrow of that countrys Russian-leaning elected government last February.
Instead, Putin managed to transfer the Crimean peninsula, with its strategically crucial military bases, from Ukrainian to Russian sovereignty without firing a shotan impressive feat of geopolitical gamesmanship whether you trust the cunning rascal or not. Indeed, its hard to imagine any Russian head of state willingly surrendering control of warm-water naval bases on the Black Sea.
Even if the vast majority of Crimean citizens didnt yearn to return to Mother Russia, as quite clearly they did.
Meanwhile, the role of Good Guy in the Ukrainian melodrama has fallen by default to President Barack Obama, who appears disinclined to play it.
Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force, the president asked recently, after weve just gone through a decade of war at enormous cost to our troops and to our budget? And what is it exactly that these critics think would have been accomplished?
He didnt call any names, but Obama did mention the Sunday TV talk shows, where 2008 presidential rival Senator John McCain (R-AZ) frequently holds forth. Its a rare interview that doesnt find the bellicose Arizonan, whos supported all 14 of the nations last three wars, yearning to bomb somebody.
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