ag·gres·sion
əˈgreSHən/
1. hostile or violent behavior or attitudes toward another; readiness to attack or confront.
synonyms: hostility, aggressiveness, belligerence, bellicosity, force, violence; pugnacity, pugnaciousness, militancy, warmongering; attack, assault
2. forceful and sometimes overly assertive pursuit of one’s aims and interests.
synonyms: confidence, self-confidence, boldness, determination, forcefulness, vigor, energy, zeal
Recent examples.
Senator Chris Murphy (on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee): “I think the time is now to rapidly ratchet up our sanctions, whether it’s on Russian petrochemical companies or on Russian banks.”
“Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top-ranking Republican on the committee, said on the same program yesterday the administration should impose sanctions on Russia’s energy and banking industries unless there’s an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukraine border.”
John Kerry (Secretary of State) “…if we’re not able to see progress on the immediate efforts to be able to implement the principles of this agreement this weekend, then we will have no choice but to impose further costs on Russia.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney: “We are actively preparing new sanctions.”
Chuck Hagel (Secretary of Defense) as reported in the Washington Post: “Poland and the United States will announce next week the deployment of U.S. ground forces to Poland as part of an expansion of NATO presence in Central and Eastern Europe in response to events in Ukraine. That was the word from Poland’s defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, who visited The Post Friday after meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon on Thursday.”
The readiness to confront Russia is aggressive.
In addition, there is no known benefit to the interests of Americans by intervening in the politics of Ukraine and/or Russia. There are only costs and large risks.
Ukraine is none of my business and, I venture to say, none of your business either. It is therefore none of the business of the aggressors in Washington either, if they were truly representative of you and me.
Russia doesn’t control the Ukraine or its politics any more than the U.S. controls the Mexican drug trade. Therefore there is no known link between such sanctions (and troops in Poland) and the politics in Ukraine. This makes sanctions not only aggressive but also stupid, dysfunctional, and ignorant.
Some sort of a beginning of a possible resolution, however tenuous and partial, was reached last week at Geneva. This brought the OSCE into the picture. Obama immediately expressed skepticism and placed the burden of proof on Russia. He also limited the time frame for action to an impossibly short “several days” and continued to treat Russia as responsible for the internal politics and occurrences in Ukraine.
Washington’s foreign policy is belligerent, bellicose, impatient, bullying, ignorant, thoughtless, irresponsible and stupid, all in one. It is a prime example of the inherent irrationality of political power and government and its capacity continually to produce outcomes that harm the people being governed.
6:58 pm on April 20, 2014
