Ukraine Under Martial Law As Region Secedes

by JASmius

Actually, Ukraine is once again a de facto Russian province, for all intents and purposes.  "President" Viktor Yanukovych is a Putin stooge and puppet, which goes a long ways in explaining the past three months of near-civil war and the truce into which he's now been forced - at least for now.

But that's not what interests me.  Here's the question of the day: There are three paragraphs at the link that are utterly irrelevant to the story.  See if you can guess which three they are.  I'll give you all five minutes....

....Give up?  Trick question - I know you all spotted them even at a brief glance:

President Barack Obama warned Ukraine "there will be consequences" for violence if people step over the line and hurt civilians. He says that includes making sure that the military doesn't step into a situation that civilians should resolve.

Obama said the United States condemns the violence in the strongest terms and holds Ukraine's government primarily responsible to ensure it is dealing with peaceful protesters appropriately.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Ukrainian Defense Minister Pavlo Lebedev in December against involving the military in efforts to break up demonstrations, according to the Department of Defense.

O is the foreign policy answer to the old riddle about whether or not a falling tree makes a noise if nobody is there to hear the sound, except that he makes no sound no matter how many are in earshot.  Warnings?  "There will be consequences"?  Like what, exactly?  More meaningless condemnations?  "Sanctions"?  "Red lines"?  Does Yanukovych even have to bother comparing notes with the mullahs, the ChiComms, Bashar Assad, Kim jong-un, or Nicolás Maduro Moros?  No he does not, because even if he did need such consultation, his boss Czar Vlad would provide him all the Red Barry comedy material he would ever need.

What the first "progressive" president actually (and famously) said was, "Speak softly....but carry a big stick!"  The One insists that it's the other way around.  Just one more reason why we all wish he'd just shut up.


UPDATE: Well, I guess sanctions will be crossed off O's list of futile gestures:

While embattled Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych and the leaders of that country's protests urged a truce on Wednesday, two U.S. senators called for sanctions against those responsible for two days of heavy bloodshed that has left at least 26 people dead....

The senators, who visited the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in December, said legislation they have proposed would impose "targeted sanctions on government officials and other persons who have committed, ordered, or materially supported acts of violence against peaceful citizens in Ukraine, or who are complicit in the rollback of Ukraine’s democracy."

"These sanctions should not, and will not, target the people or the country of Ukraine as a whole," they said. "Instead, they will be narrowly focused on those individuals who must be held accountable for violating human rights and undermining democracy."

There is no way on all the back-nines that the dictator will allow such sanctions legislation to become law.  First and foremost, Congress would be usurping back his purloined Article I/Section I lawmaking power; second, let's be candid about this folks, if Barack Obama was willing to turn last September's Syrian "crisis" that he himself provoked over to Vladimir Putin to "resolve," why would he treat any differently a formerly independent country and now neo-Russian province on Vlad's geopolitical doorstep?

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton supplies the correct reason not to take the sanctions route:

Sanctions are not the answer, he said, because they will only drag the economy down to Russia's level.

The United States has ignored the problem for the past five years, since Ukraine made overtures toward becoming a member of NATO, Bolton said.

The protests began in November, when Yanukovych's government abandoned an agreement to strengthen ties with the European Union, instead seeking closer cooperation with Russia. Days later, police brutally attacked protesters — galvanizing public support for the demonstrators.

Which means two things: (1) The One had a hand in precipitating the Ukrainian crisis as well, and (2) he would absolutely impose economic sanctions - if Ukraine became the 51st state.