As the word has watched the last 72 hours, the Russian Federation under the leadership of the world’s most dangerous “democratic” despot Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukrainian territory. Putin’s pretext is protecting Russian ethnic minorities in the Crimean Peninsula, which of course was the site of one of the world’s most famous military conflicts. The excuse/justification given by Putin sounds painfully like Adolf Hitler’s justification for occupying the Sudetenland in 1938. The failure of Britain and France to stop Hitler in the summer of 1938 gave the Nazis a critical year to develop military capability and turn the Soviet Union (temporarily) against them. By the time Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939, Hitler was in a MUCH stronger position than a year earlier.
Today we begin a multiple part series authored by TFS’ Justin Snyder and Kartik Krishnaiyer on the crisis on Ukraine. Some of the major areas we will cover in the series are:
- Historical persecution of Ukrainians and Tatars and why the world owes it to Ukraine to act. No land suffered more under the thumb of the 20th century’s two most brutal dictators- Stalin and Hitler.
- Nuclear non-proliferation agreements being worthless if Putin’s action stands uncontested.
- 13 years of US appeasement and indulgence towards Putin’s Russia by the United States must stop.
- The need for the US under a progressive president to actively defend liberal/progressive principles abroad even if it requires the use of military force. How the US Military can be used as a force for spreading democracy and progressive principles to foreign lands. (we concede the new Ukrainian government has right-wing elements but that is not what we are speaking of)
- Why UN authorization is completely unnecessary to act. Some progressives believe the only legal and just wars are authorized by the United Nations. We don’t buy into this logic since the UN long proven it rarely is used effectively in this sort of matter. The Kosovo conflict provided a road map for how NATO can act when the UN says no.
- The very obvious Hitler/Stalin-Putin parallels.
- Russia’s cultivation of anti-american despots globally and misrepresentation of American actions throughout the globe represent a threat.
- Ideas for how the US, NATO, and western allies can act decisively in this crisis.
- Much more.
We live in a dangerous world and if we disengage as many in the Democratic Party want us to, we get dictatorships that oppress women, gays, minorities and basic human dignity all over the globe. Worse yet we get despotic regimes that commit genocide and “ethnic cleansing.” Putin has taken advantage of Obama’s naively conceived “reset” policy by cultivating a loose alliance of every two-bit dictator that has a grievance with liberal democracies on the planet. This came after years of taking advantage of George W. Bush’s inability to see the larger global picture beyond his own Mideast adventurism. Russia today is in many ways more dangerous than during the Cold War though both Bush and Obama did not seem to want to acknowledge this possibility.
Putin’s Russia also has a great deal of influence over the western economy through energy and gas resources. Cultivating alternatives to dependence on Russian trade is a must for western Europe.
The violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty has more implications for the west certainly than any crisis since the Balkans in the 1990s and maybe since the Cold War era. The United States must act in a decisive way to help promote our values and principles abroad. This will be the ultimate test of President Barack Obama’s leadership and let us all hope as progressives and Americans that he can rise to the occasion.
The Florida Squeeze 
You are going down a dangerous, unwise road.
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Putin already has started down that road. Now we are simply defending our interests from a hostile, despotic adversary.
We won’t be advocating defense of the Crimea as horrible as it is to concede defeat there. It’s not practical to liberate them at this time. We will he advocating other actions though which we believe are strong and decisive.
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You would do well to consider the thoughts of the rational conservative commentator Daniel Larison:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/when-should-the-u-s-speak-out-about-foreign-protests/
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Thanks for sharing. He makes some fair points and is taking it from a true conservative viewpoint. I am a liberal but respect his viewpoint. Very consistent with his ideology.
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“The United States must act in a decisive way to help promote our values and principles abroad.” What values do we want to promote. Russia seems to already have the values promoted by our Tea Party Right. I know that to compare our neo-Nazi right to a communist country seems a poor analogy, but the result effect on human rights is the same.
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Generally speaking the best way we can “promote our values and principles abroad” is to live up to them at home.
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I agree with that! And do we? Nope in most cases sadly…
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Wow I am impressed. Some logical thinking on this site for a change! You have nailed it. I’m looking forward to reading this series I think you’re onto the right stuff.
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And what are our “interests” in the Ukraine?
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Energy resources for our allies in Western Europe, the breadbasket of our new allies in Eastern Europe and much of the west also as well as standing up to Russian aggression not the “aggression” of some two-bit tin pot dictator like Saddam or Qadaffi where the US has little security interest. This is real life not some made for TV war the US in this era likes to fight.
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1) So we’re going to assure energy resources for Western Europe by attacking the country that supplies them? The price of gas worldwide is already spiking at the prospect.
2) How much standing up will we have to do in Russia’s backyard before they back down?
That kind of OK Corral mentality is precisely “made for TV.”
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I concede the Crimea is lost. I believe we need to occupy the western 2/3 of the country to ensure no Russian attack there. It would be a defensive war. Maybe our action would provoke the Russians of course. Justin will get into our ideas in the piece he is working on now.
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Occupation of….?!! Have you looked at a map lately?
“A defensive war.” Right. That will reassure the Russians.
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Well we would need this Ukrainian nationalist government (which Russia sees as illegitimate) invite us to occupy. Of course we wouldn’t occupy otherwise. I am sure if Obama or Kerry made the offer, they would accept.
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Please stick to domestic politics. Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The legitimacy of the Ukraine’s new govt is open to question and its base of support (oligarchs, many fascists) is unsavory.
Beyond that, picture an occupation of Quebec by the Russians in support of the Parti Quebecois. A “defensive” occupation, to be sure.
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The difference is Ukraine’s sovereignty is respected by international institutions. Regardless of what the Bloc Quebecois scream, Quebec is part of Canada as every referendum has shown. I understand the issue of legitimacy of this Ukrainian Government. But a coup is an internal matter. It does not justify a foreign power disrespecting Ukrainian sovereignty and dismembering the country under possible false pretexts.
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[…] Introduction to series […]
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Of course the Quebec example is only for purposes of geography and its relation to what reactions one can expect from an adversary. Western military intervention in the Ukraine makes a Russian military response inevitable. Your proposal would make Kiev a new Sarajevo.
If Crimea secedes from the rest of Ukraine it will not be without the support of the Crimeans. The recent experience of Eastern Europe shows that national borders are artificial, and can peacefully be redrawn.
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Article is good but your comments are disappointing. We must not let Crimea go without a fight. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity have been violated. We must work to liberate Crimea.
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I agree we must intervene. But you seem to want to blame Obama for these problems when in fact Bush caused of the problems with Russia and undermined our global standing.
Your tone assumes Obama will do the wrong thing. I believe he will do the right thing. We will either intervene militarily or we will box Russia in diplomatically.
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The U.S. must do everything it can to avoid direct confrontation with the Russians. The consequences would be too dangerous to conceive and, after all, they didn’t attack us. There is quite a bit we can do to counter Russian interests around the globe without direct military confrontation. Therefore, I’m skeptical of putting US forces in the Ukraine.
On the other hand, we swiftly start shipping military equipment and resources to Ukrainian military forces we can be certain are nationalist and independent enough that these resources will not fall into hands of those sympathetic to Russia. This could include, but not be limited to, tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and anti-aircraft batteries.
On the economic front, we can freeze certain Russian economic assets that are even indirectly involved with the Russian military. We can also start cancelling the U.S. visas of Russian oligarchs.
These are just a couple of ideas but there are plenty more that could be effective and would avoid a direct military confrontation with the Russians.
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You really think the Russians are going to sit back and do nothing while Western arms flow into the Ukraine? And how do we respond then?
I’m shocked and appalled to find so many voices — Democratic voices, one supposes — advocating such a reckless, thoughtless course.
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Please look at the map:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=ukraine&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x40d1d9c154700e8f:0x1068488f64010,Ukraine&gl=us&ei=QxcVU638LYqgkQfNhIGAAw&ved=0CLYBELYD
Now tell me whose airspace all these arms shipments are going to fly through? Name one of them the Russians would be reluctant to lean on.
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I think we should send Putin a loud message. Bomb Syrian air installations and blockade Sevastapool.
Obama is president not Bush. Idiots like Rumsfeld aren’t around. We have Hagel and Kerry real war heroes.
We can do this and I think we have to send a loud message to Putin.
No more hitlers!
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This is a joke, right?
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Switch parties please idiot.
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Blockading Sevastopol would be a tacit declaration of war and an error of epic proportions. We need to accept the defacto administration in Crimea and move on. My thoughts are we make sure the areas without a Russian majority do not get overrun. Maybe that even means we accept a partition of the country. I’d rather not, but if the Russians promise to not violate the sovereignty of the reduced Ukraine we may have to accept it. I would back up that agreement with military force, a defensive police action which seems to be all NATO is good for these days. Justin will have his thoughts tomorrow and where we go from here.
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We cannot afford another war.
Let the Europeans fight their own battles.
We have too many troubles here at home. We cannot afford to waste time and money on European problems.
Act like a democrat for gods sake!
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It was our party that stopped Hitler. If we listened to the Republicans in the 1930s we be speaking German.
This is similar. Bushes policies got us of into this box with Russia but Obama will get us out of it by doing the right thing here.
That includes putting Syria aback on the table. International agreements mean nothing to this Russian government so I don’t think we should honor the agreement on syria anymore.
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This is a very different situation from HItler’s Germany, and a great mistake of geopolitics is to re-fight the last war. And we’ve already demonstrated a willingness to flout international law, so no need to do it again so foolishly.
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I agree Russia has broken international agreements with regards to Ukrainian sovereignty but that does not mean we turn around and break a 6 month old deal on Syria. That would undermine our moral standing completely.
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[…] Intro […]
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We need our western allies singing from the same song sheet before taking action.
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And fortunately for us, they like their natural gas supply.
No military adventures, NATO expansion, etc., on Russia’s doorstep, please.
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