Arming Ukraine: Obama's Well-Founded Hesitations (Le Temps, Switzerland)

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Arming Ukraine: Obama's Well-Founded Hesitations (Le Temps, Switzerland)

"To understand the Russia policy of Obama Administration when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, just ask yourself what the policy would have been with Republican hawk John McCain in the White House. … If Barack Obama is hesitating, it's because he doesn't like war, and prefers to fight them at a distance (as with drones and air strikes in Iraq). He has other priorities. … If Obama opts for muscular military aid, even if defensive, Washington would nevertheless be taking a risk: that of dividing the united American-European front against the autocratic Putin."

By Stéphane Bussard

Translated By Pierre Guittard

February 7, 2015

Switzerland - Le Temps - Original Article (French)

To understand the Russia policy of the Obama Administration when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, just ask yourself what the policy would have been with Republican hawk John McCain in the White House. The American president, who has always left the door open to diplomacy, couldn't allow the annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin's destabilization of east Ukraine to go unpunished. So he convinced Europeans to apply severe sanctions on Moscow. These measures haven't prevented Vladimir Putin from violating the Minsk agreement, drawing calls for an even harder line from Washington.

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Should defensive weapons be provided to Kiev? If we apply the principle of symmetry, the answer is yes. Despite the denials of Moscow, deliveries of heavy Russian weaponry to separatists in eastern Ukraine are massive. Doing the same for the Ukrainian army would give it a chance to defend the sovereignty of the country. This would be to curb the Kremlin boss for fears that he is undermining the very foundations of Europe. Does such a strategy have a chance of succeeding? It is difficult to say.

If Barack Obama is hesitating, it's because he doesn't like war, and prefers to fight them at a distance (as with drones and air strikes in Iraq). He has other priorities. In Syria he was confronted with a similar situation. Should he have armed the so-called moderate rebel elements? Today no one can claim to have a definitive answer.

Posted by Worldmeets.US

If he opts for muscular military aid, even if defensive, Washington would nevertheless be taking a risk: that of dividing the united American-European front against the autocratic Putin.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, admits that either way, relations between Moscow and Washington will suffer a major cold spell, yet he remains optimistic. What will draw Russia and the West closer, he predicts, is that the Russian middle class no interest in a Russian-American conflagration and rather appreciated the internationalism of former President Dmitri Medvedev.

Tweets about #russia #putin #ukraine

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Izvestia, Russia: Russia Must Hold Out or Land on the 'Dustbin of History'
Sol, Portugal: 2015: On World War and Russia Sanctions
Marianne, France: French Failure to Deliver Mistrals to Russia 'Impolitic and Masochistic'
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: Kremlin Propagandists Take Audiences for 'Idiots with no Memory'
Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia: Gorbachev: West 'Resigned' to Crimea's Return to Russia
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany: The Kremlin Media War: All-Channel Propaganda
Le Figaro, France: Kremlin Demands for New Global Security Architecture Cannot be Ignored
Le Figaro, France: Xi and Putin: United in the Face of Western Critics
20 Minutes, Ukraine: Why Russians 'Will Want to Return Crimea' to Ukraine
Die Welt, Germany: Republicans May Give 'Lame Duck Procrastinator' Backbone He Needs
Publico, Portugal: Sweden and Finland: Where Military 'Impotence' Meets the Russian Bear
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: Putin 'Believes What He Wants to Believe'
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: Did Putin Want Poland-Russia Split of Ukraine? Hardly Likely