The downing of a Malaysian Airline plane over Ukraine will mean a cold relation between Russia and the U.S. for years to come. I think it is obvious that Ukraine rebels fired the missile, mistaking the plane for an Ukrainian air force jet. But the sophisticated weapon can only be supplied by Russia. Putin will lie and try to cover this up but nobody from the western world will believe him. The U.S. had announced tougher sanctions days before this and will tighten the grip on Russia more now. More importantly, the Europeans, who had not been as tough on Russia because of their larger trades with Russia, is now much more outraged. So I believe the Russian economy, which had been slowed lately, may well going into a recession.
While we can use Russian help in Syria, Iran and North Korea, they have not been much help anyway. Putin will hang on power because of propaganda about Ukraine have increased nationalism in his favor. But eventually the economic blows will make it hard for him to stay in power. This may take a few years but we must be patient. After all there is no military solution to this.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
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Well, the relations between Russian and the U.S. is already pretty cold. It'll be interesting to see if anything is done. Maybe if this were a European flight, things may go differently.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Malaysia is in any position to fight the Russians. So, we may see some posturing. What I don't like is the looting that happened. These pro-Russian troops are cowards.
They wear masks and they try to bully who ever gets in their way. It's too bad that someone can't put them in their place.
For them to deny investigators to the site is an indicator of who and what we are dealing with.
I hope you are correct about the Russian economy. However, I am skeptical that it will do much good, since Putin will just make his people suffer, while he lives the good life.
Are you going to address the immigration "problem" that is happening? There are quite a few protests here this past week with both sides yelling at each other and waving the flag.
-LBOAYM
There are no quick solutions to the immigration problem. The situation with the children coming from Central America is even more complicated. It is tragic that these kids are risking their lives to make the attempt to get here. Even worse is the false info out there that once they get here they will be allowed to stay.
ReplyDeleteI understand that we can't take everyone who makes it here. If we do that more and more will come. But I think anyone who protests these kids have no heart. I mean, if they are in their shoes, won't they do the same? It is also true our addiction to illegal drugs fuel a lot of the violence in these countries and so we are partly responsible for this. I think the calls for sealing the border is naive. We have more fences than before but people are still able to make it over. If there is a demand, there will be supply. The same goes for drugs.
So in the short term, we have to send the kids back as soon as possible. While the right is blaming Obama, it is the law signed by Bush that gives these kids the right to long hearings, delaying deportation to more than a year. The word has to get out there that we can't allow them to stay. In the long term, we may as well legalize drugs. It won't cure the addiction problem and may even worsen it at first. But in the long run, it will at least take the criminal element out of it. With profit drying up, less violence for turf war will occur in all of Americas.