This is all kinds of bad:
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been unable to get anyone on the phone at Ukraine's defense ministry over the past several days as violence flared and Kiev named a new head of the armed forces general staff, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
"We haven't been able to connect with anybody from the Defense Ministry there in Ukraine," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a Pentagon news briefing.
"Here in the Pentagon, we've been trying to (connect with them) pretty diligently this whole week."
Well, one of our two ships in the Black Sea is out of action, it seems, and we failed to keep a corps in Germany (and I only asked for four forward-deployed brigades from the corps). I guess the Ukrainian defense minister doesn't see why Hagel's opinions are relevant.
I mean, if we couldn't send anybody from Europe to far closer Benghazi in 2012 on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, what force would Hagel have free to even theoretically affect events in Ukraine?
I know the Cold War is over, but defending our gains in Europe through two world wars and a Cold War shouldn't be too much to ask. We should have a larger ground presence in Europe, with a corps headquarters to have real warfighting capabilities there. Then maybe we'd get our phone calls answered.
There is a deal in place now. Apparently the Ukrainians will talk to the Russians and to the European Union, which we recently dismissed, yet which managed a deal:
Ukraine opposition leaders signed an EU-mediated peace deal with President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday, aiming to end a violent standoff that has left dozens dead and opening the way for a early presidential election this year.
Russian-backed Yanukovich - under pressure to quit from the mass demonstrations in Kiev - earlier offered a series of concessions to his pro-European opponents, including a national unity government and constitutional change to reduce his powers, as well as the presidential vote.
Yanukovich lost legitimacy. I hope this works out and isn't just a delay in losing Ukraine to Russia.
I'm normally not comforted when the EU tangles with the Russians. But maybe Ukraine is important enough for the EU to make Nuland's dismissal of them less than fully accurate.
Note. Military Review editors told me a decade ago that they'd remove the "PhD" from the online article. They did publish my email in the next issue, clearing it up, but the incorrect suffix has returned online. I don't know why it was there in the first place since I never told them I had anything more than a MA in history.
UPDATE: Secretary Hagel got a call through after the immediate drama was over:
"Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel spoke by phone with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Pavlo Lebedev this afternoon.
"Minister Lebedev assured the secretary that the Ukrainian armed forces remain the protectors of the Ukrainian people, that their deployment inside the country has been focused on protecting defense facilities and equipment, and that his forces would not use arms against the Ukrainian people.
"Secretary Hagel said he was encouraged by the recent news that the Ukrainian government and the opposition leadership had reached an agreement on how to move forward without further violence. He commended the government's decision to keep the military on the sidelines of the crisis thus far and urged continued restraint.
Next time, I'm sure the call will go right through.
But hey, at least Hagel was calling. Kerry? He didn't even complain about the carbon footprint of the Maidan fires in Kiev.
