Oh no, he can't. No, he says who are we to judge the Russians?
My sentiments, to be clear, are with the legitimate Ukrainian government, not with the neo-imperialist regime in Russia. But the United States, frankly, has limited standing to insist on absolute respect for the territorial integrity of sovereign states.
Before Iraq there was Afghanistan, there was the Persian Gulf War, there was Panama, there was Grenada. And even as we condemn Moscow for its outrageous aggression, we reserve the right to fire deadly missiles into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and who knows where else.
Are you effing kidding me?
We tried for more than a decade to get Saddam to abide by the ceasefire terms and he would not. We tried for a year to get a second (unneeded in my opinion) resolution out of the UN Security Council. And we led a coalition in to defeat the monster Saddam. Is this really a moral equivalent to Putin's invasion?
And he condemns Afghanistan? The former good, "real" war? The war waged in response to the 9/11 attacks because the Taliban regime hosted al Qaeda and would not turn them over? Really? Two Obama escalations of force are somehow wrong and nullify--or at least contextualize--Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
The 1991 Persian Gulf War? Really? the effing sainted international effing community even sanctified that war with one of only two UN authorizations to wage war in order to liberate Kuwait from Saddam's tender mercies. That's bad now?
You want to talk Panama? A thug despot--Noriega--who ran drugs on the side? Whatever else you want to say, we did not use the war to retake the Panama Canal that we had given up ten years earlier. This is to be compared as a war in kind with Russia's grab for Crimea? Really?
Maybe you can say Grenada was trumped up in its justification to rescue American students there. But so soon after the Iran hostage crisis, were we really to trust a communist government that had invited Cuba in and was an ally of the Soviet Union? And again, we didn't stay and control Grenada, leaving them free to choose their future.
As for drone strikes, now we can't kill al Qaeda killers? That makes it wrong for us to condemn Russia? Who knows where we'll use them? Who knows where al Qaeda will gather to plot against us!
What a putz.
And it is really amusing that Robinson doesn't bring up the Libya War which was waged by President Obama without a congressional authorization, relying on twisting a Security Council resolution from a no-fly zone to regime change.
But what really gets me about Robinson's reflexive defense of the Russians and condemnation of America is that he completely discounts five years of President Obama restoring our reputation abroad and giving us a foreign policy of Hope and Change that Putin just peed all over.
All those wars cited are pre-Obama in origin! We're good now! Who the Hell is Robinson to dismiss our president's outrage over Crimea?!
It would be a clear violation of Russia’s commitment to respect the independence and sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, and of international laws. And just days after the world came to Russia for the Olympic Games, it would invite the condemnation of nations around the world. And indeed, the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.
Is Robinson trying to say that the Obama administration's opposition to Russia's subliminal conquest of Crimea is wrong?
Good God, is he saying President Obama himself is wrong?
Whatever our past sins, we're hopey now. We're changed! We've got synergy from combining the hope and change into one Unicorn-fueled smart and moral foreign policy! How can Robinson minimize that which President Obama has called wrong?
I assume this rejection of President Obama's judgment is based on racism. It has to be. That's always what opposition to the president is based on. Why should Eugene Robinson be any different?
And his advice to Ukrainians is bizarre. Nothing can be done. Just lie back and think of Hope and Change.
I know, I can't look into Robinson's soul to see his motivation. But all the signs of racism--opposing a position the president holds--are there. I leave it to wiser souls than mine to judge whether Eugene Robinson hates President Obama's father or mother.
