Graham and McCain and Russia and Ukraine (Oh, My!)

I may not be a foreign policy whiz, but by gum, I like to think I know a thing or a dozen about US politics, so it doesn't surprise me in the least to see the Statler and Waldorf of Obama Administration foreign policy come out and do their shtick. So what have we got from the daring duo of hawkish hackery?

Well, I think starting with Sen. Lindsey Graham and his snippy stand on CNN is just fine!

On CNN’s State of the Union, Sen. Graham said, “Well, number one, stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators. It is not your strong suit. Every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine. We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression. President Obama needs to do something.”

No, let's don't have Sen. Graham roll his eyes, snap his fingers, or even pop his gum over what he thinks President Obama could be doing in a less "being President Obama" fashion.  It wouldn't be such a leap for anyone to guess that the consequences of sanctions, isolation, or other economic ramifications that are brought to bear from President Putin's violation of Ukrainian sovereignty aren't meant as any kind of idle threat or even threats at all--but certainties. It's Putin that's that bad actor here, but Graham doesn't seem to quite be able to distinguish that from his disapproval of Obama, the de rigueur attitude of a GOP senator facing teabagger challengers--no?



So, like, what can we expect from senior statesman and almost-president Senator McCain? Well, I'll leave that to Steve Benen to explain:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), you’re so vain, you probably think this invasion’s about you.

Sen. John McCain sharply condemned President Obama on Monday, blasting the administration’s foreign policy as “feckless” and partially responsible for the mounting crisis over the advance of Russian forces into Ukraine. […] “Why do we care? Because this is the ultimate result of a feckless foreign policy in which nobody believes in America’s strength anymore,” McCain said to the annual gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington.McCain was apparently quite animated on the subject, going on (and on) about how President Obama is personally responsible for shaping world events in a way McCain disapproves of.

 Reality, meanwhile, points in a very different direction. As David Ignatius explained this morning, “There are many valid criticisms to be made of Obama’s foreign policy … but the notion that Putin’s attack is somehow the United States’ fault is perverse.” 

Yeah. Syncopated "blame the current US administration" shtick from the long-term inadvertent foreign policy comedy duo. Why, some educated observers might even allege that's not patriotic, it's practically the opposite! And this wouldn't even be the first time.  

Now, you won't hear me saying anything great about Putin, because I think I've expressed my dislike well enough regarding the farce of spending so much money to build a first-class Olympics venue when the apparent corruption and slap-dash filigree only covers a fraction of the squalor and denial of human rights. And I will agree that US foreign policy has probably fallen short of shoring up the former Soviet satellites economically to the extent that it would properly permit their independence, although it is questionable whether any sum is adequate to lift a nation out from under a government of pluperfect plutocratic bounders. 

But the denial of the long-standing relationship between Ukraine preceding this presidency, or even the birth of the US, is just wankery. The whole world does not revolve around the US, nor should it be expected to. Putin's land-grab of today has more to do with the Iron Curtain that fell through the middle of the last century and was only rent at the very end of it. To suppose that Putin's interference in Ukraine has more to do with some perception of weakness in the current US president rather than the near-coup that sent grifty greedy Yanukovich packing is a little more like the idle thoughts of people who simply don't care for the current Administration, than people making a reasoned argument about what's going on. 

And, for what it's worth, the Russians have furnished forth a claim that Yanukovich himself had authorized their very cordial "help" in this domestic situation.   Any day, he may or may not himself come forward to corroborate this "permission slip". What then, would-be Galahads with your spears ready to oh what the fuck. I think what I'm getting at is if President Obama is playing this by ear it's because that's all the intelligence we've got on yon inscrutable Kremlin gremlins. You just don't know what folks'll do. And there is no good reason to commit lives or treasure where our interests are as yet undefined. It's Graham and McCain, sad to say, that don't seem to have their eye on the ball. US interests are not wound up in a dick-measuring contest.