Russia invaded a sovereign nation’s territory and took it by force. A majority of the population in Crimea appear to be pro-Russian or of Russian origin. In their referendum, they voted to be Russians.
I recognize that Russia’s actions are in violation of international law and nobody but Russia and her friends like it.
However, how is this any different from what the United States did in 2003 when it invaded Iraq. We didn’t just take a piece of the country, we took the whole of it and broke it.
I agree, that we didn’t make it the 51st state of the United States, but when the bombs were flying over Baghdad, the Russians and the rest of the world didn’t know that. For all they knew, we were taking over the country and we didn’t ask for permission.
Well, we actually did ask for permission in front of the United Nations. We made Colin Powell compromise his entire political career by making him a stooge in this game of lies, by having him deliver an argument based on fabricated facts and wishful thinking.
So here is my point:
In 2003, the United States invaded a sovereign nation and made a mess of it, a mess that is still not anywhere near cleaned up.
In 2014, Russia invaded a sovereign nation, the Ukraine.
Is there really a difference? Talk me down!
Great power politics (note that the US is not a superpower anymore) is full of hypocrisy. GPs use international law when it’s in their interest, and when not they will ignore it. As long as there’s no world government, international law will be joke.
I agree with every word here. I am also perplexed as to why America is backing a government that has not been democratically elected. Sure, few of us like Viktor Yanukovich — besides the widespread corruption, remember what he was rumoured to have done to Yushenko — but he was “elected” into office, fraudulently or not. We may not want him to be reinstated, but surely, we should only start supporting heads of states after they have been chosen through proper processes. That President Obama is chummy with the interim PM of Ukraine makes me uncomfortable. For all we know, Ukraine may just become another Egypt. We shouldn’t advocate constitutional democracy only when it suits us, should we?
Yep, when you have very big guns you can choose to ignore the laws that you don’t like and point those out that suit you. Little guys can’t do that. Big ones do it all the time. The U.S., Russia and China do.
Hypocrisy.
They should be banned from the UN Security Council, not that it has much teeth, anyway.