What’s needed now is for the people of Russia, Europe and the U.S. to make it clear to their leaders that there is no appetite for war or economic recession.
The crisis over Ukraine is on the verge of boiling over. Russia has amassed troops on the Ukrainian border, demanding the U.S. promise not to bring Ukraine into NATO. The Biden administration rejects that demand and warns a Russian invasion will be met with harsh economic sanctions.
Then the U.S. was complicit in street protests that led to the overthrow of a democratically elected, if massively corrupt, Ukrainian leader who was leaning toward joining the Russian economic zone. When that happened, Putin dispatched forces to take Crimea and secure its base on the Black Sea. U.S. and its allies then imposed the first level of sanctions.
The NATO alliance provides any one member the virtual guarantee that all will come to its defense if it is attacked. Needless to say, the alliance doesn’t and can’t accept every country that wants in. If it did, the guarantee would mean nothing. So, why Ukraine? Russia provides over 40% of Europe’s natural gas and over 25% of its oil. If sanctions were to disrupt that, it would devastate the Russian economy but also that of Germany and the rest of the U.S.’s European allies. The U.S. would feel the impact, as oil and gas prices soar.
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