Tuesday, March 4, 2014
No Easy Way Out of Ukraine Crisis
The Article recaps the recent and ongoing crisis in Crimea and Ukraine. The article expresses multiple opinions and stances as well as a lot of information from both sides on the issue. The use of sanctions is described in the article along with the repercussions with other European nations regarding action from the USA. I find it interesting the tension and attention that comes with military action from another nuclear armed world power. Should Russia's aggressions continue, there could be some serious conflict between the US and Russia once again.
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Although I am not totally sure about why Russia took the initiative to occupy Crimea in the first place, I think it may have something to do with the fact that Crimea used to be a part of the Soviet Union. I thought that I saw something about on the Colbert Report about Russia still having hard feelings about Ukraine's control of Crimea. If in fact Russia does still have these feelings I think that it would be very hard to get Russia to agree to the "offramp" discussed in the article. Although I see this "offramp" as being the best option, I think that Russia will need further encouragement to agree to it. Putin seems like a proud guy, and I don't seem him going down without a little more fight.
ReplyDeleteSounds like we need to do any possible to prevent Russia from moving into Kiev and eastern Ukraine. I believe any sanctions that could potentially help push Russia out of Ukraine is necessary. The hardest part about this is Vladimir Putin. He's just so stubborn and unwilling to listen to anybody outside of Russia that it's going to be really hard to get him to budge. Hopefully someone close to him can convince him to make the right decision because he's definitely not going to listen to us let alone the rest of Europe.
ReplyDeleteThere is no easy solution to the question of the Ukraine. Russia is among the most powerful nations militarily (and the fact that it has nuclear weapons) makes it very difficult to oppose it. Additionally, it could veto (and block) any sanction attempts at the United Nations. I see no way for this crisis to end well. Additionally, we cannot simply let Putin take Crimea the way that Chamberlain allowed Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia: this would only encourage more aggression (or worse) in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely difficult issue, but our main goal should be to prevent any more military action. The article states that reversing the occupation would be impossible, so the best option is to try and stop Putin in his tracks. I believe that sanctions are also necessary and could help stop the conflict from spreading. Vladimir Putin is difficult to work with and negotiate, but it will take all of our allies in Europe to help resolve the current conflict.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things that need to be considered when deciding how to respond to this issue and best stop Russia from continuing to occupy Ukraine. I liked how this article listed the different methods the United States could use to impose sanctions in hopes that Russia will stop. While the "off ramp" option seems like the best solution, I am no sure how likely it is that this will happen.
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ReplyDeleteIt's really a very scary situation. With so many european countries dependent on Russia for things like oil, and the US dependent on Russia to cooperate with problems in Syria and other middle eastern countries, it seems no one can afford to stand up against Putin. But as Hilary Clinton pointed out their are definitely scary parallels to what Putin is doing and what Hitler did before World War II. It seems that what we need to do during this momentary break from Putin trying to move completely into Ukraine, is to try and rid ourselves of our dependency on Russia so that we at least have the option of using more than economic sanctions to stop Russia.
ReplyDeleteRight now, it seems like the United States is leading this movement against Russia. That may be because the only news that we are getting about this issue is American news. What I got from the article is that the United States seems to be "stiff-arming" other countries into publicly going against Russia. The article stated that some countries said that they would have to agree with the tough sanctions, even though a majority of Europe is dependent on Russia's supply of natural gas.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a situation with no easy way out. Any decision that the United States makes to respond could very well progress it even further into a scarier and more dangerous issue. That's why every single decision has to be made very carefully, whether it's going after Russian individuals and institutions or creating sanctions against officials. It's definitely a delicate situation right now, and I agree with how the article states that Crimea could become a precedent in letting Russia know that successful invasion is possible.
ReplyDeleteThere is not an easy to get out of this mess with Ukraine. Because Russia is such a military power, it's not easy to oppose them, almost like the US opposing the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics. Okay, maybe it's a little bit different than that, but it's still no easy situation or task to deal with Russia. With the US acting like a "global policeman", it seems as though we are getting ourselves into messes that we cannot get out of. While the article says White House officials see three ways out, none seems very easy and it's hard to tell which is most likely.
ReplyDeleteRussia's power militarily is much greater than ours and other countries. Again, we seem to have gotten ourselves into a situation that has no easy way out. The U.S. must be very careful when handling this crisis, because us, like many other countries depend on Russia in certain ways, and can't afford to directly stand up to Putin
ReplyDeleteAlthough the American officials took some comfort in the Russian acceptance of elections, the government shouldn't let its guard down. As Ivo Daalder pointed out, Crimea might become a precedent, and we cannot ignore that. Between the three choices that the White House officials saw possible, the "offramp" seems like the safest bet to avoid violent confrontation. However, like the article title expresses, and like many issues in foreign affairs, there is no solution to U.S intervention.
ReplyDeleteI think that the somewhat neutral position that the US has taken on this issue is the smartest option. Preventing anything further from happening will keep the amount of cleanup and negotiations to a minimum in the future. I have a question about the Magnitsky Act, why would these people want to come to the United States and what is the purpose of blocking them from coming to America?
ReplyDeleteThis is a really tough situation that we are in here. I think the number one priority should be to limit the violence going on now and try to prevent any more for the time being. Even though it seems Russia and Putin are pretty stubborn in their stance maybe they will be open to peaceful negotiation. Sanctions should be imposed by the UN. We cannot let Russia just simply take Crimea without doing anything to stop them.
ReplyDeleteAs Putin draws us nearer to a violent situation, we should do more about trying to calm what is happening. Sending Kerry should be the first step in the solution but I think that there should be more of our foreign policy focused on bringing this to an end. Putin has crossed a line in my personal opinion because of previous agreements for Russia to stay out of Ukraine's territory and although many Crimean's see themselves as Russians it does not allow Vlad to enter the country with force
ReplyDeleteThere's no easy way out of this situation. Every decision that is made is crucial and needs to be decided on carefully. If decisions aren't made carefully this situation could get very bad very fast. It seems to me like the we are stuck in the middle of another tough situation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are many valid opinions about what the best way to go about handling the situation, I think military action should be reserved for a time when there are no options left. I know as a world power that it is important for the United States to come to Ukraine's aid but I also think the US should carefully consider how involved we ultimately want to before deciding anything.
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