This Investors' Business Daily op-ed is idiocy. Admitting Ukraine into NATO is a terrible idea. It's an even worse idea to rush Ukraine's admission into NATO as some kind of "reciprocity" for Russia's attack on Georgia. Bad, bad, bad idea.
Ukraine is a real place, with real people, who live very, very close to Russia (its #1 trading partner) and far from America. Ukraine is not some pawn on America's chessboard. Editorials like this one really disturb me. They show a cavalier lack of compassion and appreciation for subtlety. Joining NATO won't help the average Ukrainian one bit. It won't make Ukrainians any safer. Just the opposite. It will up the ante and heighten the tension between Russia and the West, with Ukraine jerked this way & that in a tug of war that, in the end, has little to do with serving Ukraine's interests. Joining NATO will only hurt Ukrainians -- when Russia doubles the price of gas, or turns off the gas altogether, or starts charing outrageous tariffs on Ukrainian goods, or starts cracking down on the millions of legal and illegal Ukrainians living in Russia, or starts requiring visas for Ukrainians in Russia, or funding more pro-Russian political parties, or stirring up frozen separatist movements in Crimea and E. Ukraine, or a dozen other hurtful steps Moscow could take in response to Ukraine's membership in NATO.
Anyway, Ukraine's foreign ministry does NOT speak for the majority in government, or the majority of the people. (Besides opinion polls, which consistently show a majority of Ukrainians against joining NATO, you actually see graffiti here: "NATO go away!" or "NATO - No!" I've never seen any random pro-NATO graffiti.) The foreign ministry speaks for President Yushchenko, who is an anti-Russian zealot. (I don't blame the guy: Russian spies tried to poison and kill him; and Russia funded his opponent's presidential campaign). So, we should be careful whose statements within Ukraine we're listening to, and whose we're not. For perspective, if you wanted to know what "America" thought about something, you wouldn't just take Condoleeza Rice's word for it, you'd also listen to what Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were saying, not to mention moderate Republicans in Congress. If you ignored their views, you'd be getting less than half the big picture.
By the way, Ukraine's military is in awful shape, with outdated Soviet equipment and underpaid, demoralized conscripts. It will only be a liability to NATO, in every sense.
Ukraine: No Chicken Kiev
IBD Editorials
August 18, 2008
Ukraine is a real place, with real people, who live very, very close to Russia (its #1 trading partner) and far from America. Ukraine is not some pawn on America's chessboard. Editorials like this one really disturb me. They show a cavalier lack of compassion and appreciation for subtlety. Joining NATO won't help the average Ukrainian one bit. It won't make Ukrainians any safer. Just the opposite. It will up the ante and heighten the tension between Russia and the West, with Ukraine jerked this way & that in a tug of war that, in the end, has little to do with serving Ukraine's interests. Joining NATO will only hurt Ukrainians -- when Russia doubles the price of gas, or turns off the gas altogether, or starts charing outrageous tariffs on Ukrainian goods, or starts cracking down on the millions of legal and illegal Ukrainians living in Russia, or starts requiring visas for Ukrainians in Russia, or funding more pro-Russian political parties, or stirring up frozen separatist movements in Crimea and E. Ukraine, or a dozen other hurtful steps Moscow could take in response to Ukraine's membership in NATO.
Anyway, Ukraine's foreign ministry does NOT speak for the majority in government, or the majority of the people. (Besides opinion polls, which consistently show a majority of Ukrainians against joining NATO, you actually see graffiti here: "NATO go away!" or "NATO - No!" I've never seen any random pro-NATO graffiti.) The foreign ministry speaks for President Yushchenko, who is an anti-Russian zealot. (I don't blame the guy: Russian spies tried to poison and kill him; and Russia funded his opponent's presidential campaign). So, we should be careful whose statements within Ukraine we're listening to, and whose we're not. For perspective, if you wanted to know what "America" thought about something, you wouldn't just take Condoleeza Rice's word for it, you'd also listen to what Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were saying, not to mention moderate Republicans in Congress. If you ignored their views, you'd be getting less than half the big picture.
By the way, Ukraine's military is in awful shape, with outdated Soviet equipment and underpaid, demoralized conscripts. It will only be a liability to NATO, in every sense.
Ukraine: No Chicken Kiev
IBD Editorials
August 18, 2008
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