Will There Be a War?

Watching the reaction of the Russians to the ouster of the former president in the Ukraine makes me worry that we may be seeing the moves that lead to a war.  Russia just happens to announce 'long planned" military exercises near the border with the Ukraine.  Armed men in the Crimeans section of the Ukraine storm government buildings and put up the Russian flag.  When these people are ousted by the police, the Russians will surely protest the "mistreatment" of the ethnic Russians by the Ukrainian government.  Putin gives asylum to the former president and lets him tell the world from Moscow that he is still president of the Ukraine.  What's next?  Will the Russian tanks roll over the border and move on Kiev?  Will the Russians just try to seize the eastern section of the country where Russians are either in the majority or close to it?  And if this happens, will other neighbouring countries just sit by an watch?  Or will countries like Poland, Romania, Kazakhstan and others come to the aid of the Ukrainians?  And what will NATO do?  More to the point, what will president Obama do?

Right now, the entire West ought to announce that any move on the Ukraine by the Russians will be seen as a declaration of war against all of these nations.  Hopefully, if Putin is faced with a united front of opposition to any aggressive move, he will be forced to back down and let the Ukrainians live in peace rather than under Russian domination.  We will have to see.

And for those who argue that there are no national interests at stake here for the USA, they should remember the old saying, "Russia without the Ukraine is a country; Russia with the Ukraine is an empire."  The world has seen enough problems come from the Russian empire.  There is a great international interest not to let that empire be reborn.  Sadly, we have a fool like Obama as president at the moment.  Let's hope that even he can get this one right.