Cold War Renewed

The United States and Russia’s Failures

          With a ceasefire deal falling on deaf ears in Europe following the deaths of 11 civilians in a bus attack near the Ukrainian airport today, Europe stands on the verge of making a tough decision: Either leave Ukraine to die out on the battlefield or resume Cold War like policies towards Putin’s Russia. As to what those policies look like: integrate Ukraine into NATO’s fold or get tougher on Putin by slapping sanctions on his economic and banking system. We have already seen what sanctions do though, absolutely nothing. Russia has continued its blatant support of separatist forces. The United States is propping up a Ukrainian government which is close to defaulting on its debts to Russia, and a war which has so far claimed almost 5,000 lives. NATO’s Supreme Commander earlier today stated that fighting in Eastern Ukraine has once again resumed to no one’s surprise. I’ll tell you what’s surprising though and that is the inability of both global powers to come to a solid understanding.                   

          All that hard work over the past 20 years undone trying to integrate Russia into the global economy is both a failure of the United States and Russia. Old grudges die hard I guess. We can’t forget President Obama out of this one either, whom has discreetly issued Executive Orders targeting Russia’s banking system without asking the American people first if they really want to live in a world filled with fear not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis. He did it without thinking, basically rewinding the clock on corporation between our two nations. Both he and Putin are to blame for this, not the Ukrainian people. Mistakes have already been made on both sides of the table. We can no longer ignore the issues of this post-Cold War era we live in today and that is the unwillingness of good men to do anything about it. The Middle East has been ravaged by the Arab Spring, ISIS, religious extremists, and the downfall of countries which were supposed to turn to democracy so the last thing this world needs is a return to the Cold War. Thanks for reading! More to come.