By Niles Wimber
I had a high school AP English class where, near the end of the year, we had a series of “physical debates”. After the overall question was asked, sections of the room were labeled with varying degrees of “agree” or “disagree” and, as the debate progressed, you would physically move around the room to the section that matched your current opinion. This usually boiled down to one or two students who adamantly opposed each other and the rest of us moving to one side or the other.
On one particular day, the topic was globalization. At one point in the conversation, I gave an example to explain investment: a mayor convincing backers to construct a pillow factory that would support a small third-world community. Most of the class had moved to my side after hearing that.
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A New Cold War: the US/Russia Battle over the Ukrainian Crisis
By Niles Wimber
Update:
Russia has begun deploying troops to the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine “for the safety of ethnic Russians in the region”. Considering they have a major naval base there and the region borders with Russia, that only further confirms my commentary below about Russia’s motivations there. Read on.
Since my original review of the Ukrainian Maidan Revolution on February 20th, things have changed quite a bit, namely, the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych and the installation of a new opposition led government. The new government has immediately turned towards the US and the European Union for help with Ukraine’s crippled economy, much to the dismay of Russia who had previously offered to buy out Ukraine’s debt to the tune of $15 billion dollars. For their part, the Russians have started running massive war drills for troops bordering Ukraine, just for the heck of it according to them. Ukraine isn’t really an influential country compared to, say, Germany or China; what’s provoking this sudden Cold War flashback?
Russian tanks on parade. Source: Niles Wimber
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Posted in Commentary
Tagged America, Cold War, EU, national security, protests, Russia, Ukraine