You'll be seeing and hearing a lot about Mean Evil Putin vs. Poor Little Ukraine over the next few weeks.
It's all coming from the military-industrial complex plus a few neo-cons who miss the Good Old Days of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Do NOT ask them to define the American interests in Ukraine unless you're prepared to endure a Wall of Bullshit.
If I were going to take a stab at defining US interests in Ukraine, I would put a lot of weight on the credibility of our treaties.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dw.com/en/ukraines-forgotten-security-guarantee-the-budapest-memorandum/a-18111097
Some people would probably claim that nuclear nonproliferation was in our interests, and thus that this agreement needs to be upheld not just for credibility but to ensure future nonproliferation. I don't think that, though; I think the world would be a better place if Ukraine had kept its nukes.
The article you linked does NOT specify that the US is obliged to defend Ukraine's borders--only "respect" them.
ReplyDeleteIt's also pretty clear that Ukraine could not have 'kept' the missiles unless they could cough up nearly $100Bn.