I’m sorry, Henya, I have to disagree on many, many fronts.
The short version is that this war is a shame, but right now, I really do think it is time to put ‘blame’ in the rear-view mirror and focus on avoiding the plethora of landmines ahead.
Let’s hope it is soon, but there will be a time to start asking hard questions about what could have been done differently. But that time is not now.
The long version?
I think you’re seeking to blame the West for the actions of a guy with a nuclear arsenal at his fingertips who hates the West. It’s a little bit like excusing the guy who was laying in wait, while blaming the girl for being who and where she was.
>Relationship with Russia is entirely incompatible<
It didn’t have to be! Post-Soviet Union the West was happy to bring a democratic Russia into the fold. NATO would have found itself with no real reason to exist other than maybe China. But Putin wasted no time. He used his country’s own fledgling democracy against itself and took power of a huge nuclear arsenal. Hello NATO, maybe you should stick around!
> If only anyone had paid attention<
People were. VERY closely. The world order is not taken for granted, thus NATO. Thus diplomacy. It’s why elements of the political left went apoplectic when Tillerson under Trump all but dismantled the State Department. Yes ‘we’ are to blame. We elected the fool. But, turns out, Putin himself helped! And by the time we found out…too late!
Russia has been taken seriously—on a global scale, not just European—for many years. They have a permanent seat on the UN security council. They were part of the G8. They have a robust, highly respected space agency and science programs in general.
But Putin is smart, unrestrained and power-hungry, with a huge army, enormous nuclear arsenal, and vast oil supplies all at his beck and call. That is an extremely difficult thing to deal with.
>However, as quickly as Putin invaded Ukraine, that is how fast things began to change<
Russia has been under sanctions since Crimea. Would more have worked, now that we see that Putin doesn’t care about sanctions?
>After the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, the West lost an opportunity to invest in a strategic security partnership with Ukraine<
Perhaps. Or perhaps it would have only hastened the current war.
>Weakness in the failing of American identity<
If we identify ourselves as cowboys on white horses collaring the global bad guys and spreading economic prosperity with bright capitalistic smiles, then, you’re right. Failing identity.
But, if we identify ourselves as democratic, hard-working, good neighbors who strive to do the right thing for all our global friends?
Well, maybe we’ve failed there too. Because I don’t see the Trump-addled political right buying into the democracy part, or the good neighbor part, or the hard-working part either, for that matter, with anything other than lip-service.
And that’s a shame.
Sorry, I just had to kick in my uh…probably more than 2 cents!
Take care!
(Bought you book, btw! Paperback. Haven’t read it yet. Might not be my cup of tea, but I’ll give it a shot.)
