Posts Tagged ‘Crimea’

The Love Chronicles; Crymea or cry me a river.

Posted: April 1, 2014 in News and politics
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So Crimea, or cry me a river?

So, we supported the forceful overthrow of a democratically elected government because they were not kissing our ass properly. We are condemning a 98% vote by a people because it does not promote our agenda. Lets see, voting good, a democratic thing to do right. Well I guess not! We are spending a billion dollars, not to help out beleaguered citizens, but to make sure the bankers get theirs and control of the area reverts to the IMF. I thought bailouts were something we said, as a people, were bad. Does not look like our politicians give a damn about what we think!

Hell, I am not sure who is in the right here. Needs more study before I could make that determination. I do know that Crimea is full of ethnic Russians, and that it was part of what is now Russia long before even the Soviet Union came around. If you look at it’s history it had at some time been held by just about every major ethic group on the planet, starting with the Greeks in fifth century BC. So what I think I know is, what the hell business is of ours? It is in their backyard, it poses no threat, has no strategic significance, and the people seem to want Russian control, so there is no human rights issue. Should Russians be allowed to engage in border changes? Well jeez, what about Serbia and elsewhere in the world where we thought it was ok for us to the same. Just asking.

I guess my biggest bitch here is the billion dollars and the billions that will inevitably follow. If we have the ability to come up with this money, don’t we have some financial woes here at home? Doesn’t the fed have an obligation to repay the bonds it took out against the Social Security Fund as just one example of many? Most of you would argue to pay down the debt and I have no problem there either. Instead it is bailing out world banks and financing an IMF takeover of a region with your and my tax dollars. I don’t want to rekindle a cold war. I don’t want to rattle sabers or try to prove I swing the bigger stick! Ok, I know that there are other opinions out there, and I could be totally wrong. If I am, there is a comment section to this blog, use it. Or email if that is how you got it; I am never going to object to being educated.

 

 

 

 

The Love Chronicles: Just Some Thoughts

Posted: March 8, 2014 in News and politics
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Just Some Thoughts

I know, OMG, right? I will try and refrain from politics and just try for some history, geography, and of course, some basic editorializing by yours truly. Hey, it’s my blog! Just been thinking about the human condition and trying to understand it.

Let’s start with Ukraine and the Crimea since it is in the news right now. I have been checking news reports from Crimea itself, most of the people there, as far as I can tell, are of ethnic Russian descent and feel like they are not treated the same as most of Ukraine’s citizenry. Now if you look at Crimea, basically it is a peninsula, connected to the main part of the country by a fairly narrow strip of land. The Crimea has always been an area of contention; today’s problems are actually old hat.

Way back in the 13th century Crimea was the capital of the Golden Horde. Under the protection of the Ottoman Empire for about 300 years until Catherine the Great snatched it up in 1783. As you will see if you peruse the maps I have included, you will see that all of Ukraine has been passed around like vodka at a toga party. You will notice also that Ukraine shares a common border with Russia, and that it has changed in size and shape several times. During world wars it seemed to change owners much like a used car with bad brakes. So changing various political entities and countries have claimed the Ukraine and it’s peninsula off and on throughout history, leaving their stamp on the population.  This in turn has caused confusion about who it is and what it stands for.  This is my uneducated opinion of course, but I think accurate.

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So not surprising that since Ukraine was a Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991 that this is still a pebble in the shoe of Mr. Putin, who is old school and used to be KGB right up to 1991 when it was still the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Wow, that was a mouthful! Hard to type too! Vladimir also has control issues, just look at him strut when he walks, and has to broadcast himself kicking some protagonists butt in a personal defense demonstration. If you poll Russians on who they voted for, you cannot get a lot of response, but out of the response you do get, very few people seemed to have voted for Vlad, but he still wins with comfortable majorities, go figure.

So what should we do? Well whatever we do it should not be trying to play the blame game. As I have stated, I think the President is weak when it comes to foreign policy, but part of that problem is our congress and president not speaking with one voice when it is critical that we do so. Recognizing when that needs to happen is something congress should know and do, but not this congress.

Do we have a right to interfere? That is the debate isn’t it? You see most of the demonstrators in Crimea wanting to return to Russian rule. So who are we to tell them different? Did Putin send in troops to protect ethnic Russians? I think not, my opinion is that he would like the borders of Russia to start to revert back to the way they were when it was the Soviet Union.  With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Crimea became part of an independent Ukraine. Crimea’s communist authorities proclaimed self-government in 1992, which ultimately led to the territory being granted expanded autonomous rights by Kiev. Just today they voted to return to Russian control, but of course that is not the way Kiev wants it. So just be aware that this author thinks that it is important not to let Putin have whatever he wants without opposition, he is a dangerous man. Better to pay attention now than later.