Eastern Ukraine may fall to the Russians, but hey, at least the Ukrainians will be well fed as they're waving the surrender flags. Barack Obama will see to that! What they really need is help to save the sovereignty of their nation, but they're not going to get it from the United States, not when our president is determined to avoide offending Vladimir Putin at all costs. This must be what that vaunted flexibility was all about! But he does have something for them:
Ukraine is desperately seeking Western military help, but so far the U.S. has refused. Earlier this week in Manila, President Obama tetchily addressed his Ukraine policy, saying, "Well, what else should we be doing?" He offered another rhetorical question: "Do people actually think that somehow us sending some additional arms into Ukraine could potentially deter the Russian army?"
Well, who knows? Mr. Putin could crush Ukraine if he wants to send in the tanks, but he also knows the political cost of an invasion would be high. That's why he prefers destabilization with special forces, hostage-taking, murder and thuggery. Defensive but lethal weapons for Ukraine—anti-tank mines or artillery, modern guns—would raise the cost and risk of this intervention.
But Mr. Obama is so worried about upsetting Mr. Putin that he refused to send even night-vision goggles, offering 300,000 meals-ready-to-eat instead. The Ukrainians are battling to free themselves of Russian domination and build a European democracy. They deserve more than Spam in a can from America.
As usual, Obama sets up ridiculous straw men in order to defend his feckless foreign policy. The argument is not that shipments of arms will make the difference between a Russian takeover and a Russian capitulation. It's that the arms would shift the status quo such that it would at least be a little more favorable to the Ukrainians than it is now. Russia is trying to bowl over a democratic nation that seeks to be an ally of the West. We should be doing anything we reasonably can to make that as difficult a proposition as possible for the Russians to achieve. Maybe they'll achieve it anyway - and that would be a shame - but at least we would let them know that it won't be easy or risk-free to try stuff like this in the future.
But that's not Obama's priority. Obama's priority, as the Wall Street Journal editorial above makes clear, is simply not to upset Putin. I guess that's what this vaunted "flexibility" he promised was really all about. We'll be flexible if you decide to invade free nations.
Sending the Ukrainians meals is so pathetic, it really shows where America has fallen in terms of global leadership. After liberals and Ron Paul wackos spent the last decade railing against American action in opposition to global threats, they now find it impossible to flex any American muscle whatsoever. But they'll run an international Meals on Wheels program so at least the vanquished peoples can keep their microwaves busy.
Nice job electing this guy, 51 percent of you. Way to go.
