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Friday, July 18, 2014

Perverse Incentives

The idea that the secessionist shoot-down of a civilian airliner should lead to a ceasefire in the Ukraine fighting when the secessionists need a ceasefire to survive in the face of government advances is just the most morally repulsive notion I've heard all day.

Call on the Russian-supported (and sometimes Russian-staffed) secessionists to surrender. But rewarding the secessionists for killing 298 civilians (even in error as seems likely) by granting a ceasefire is grotesque.

Ukraine should argue that defeating the secessionists to regain control of eastern Ukraine is the best response.

Honestly, we've already rewarded Syria's  use of chemical weapons by turning Assad into our disarmament partner (and some want to be his anti-ISIL partner, now).

Are we to make the Ukraine secessionists and their Russian masters our partners as a reward for this tragedy?