Our support for Ukraine might be justified if Russia were acting like Germany was acting before WW-II, when continual appeasement encouraged a Germany bent on conquest to continually push the envelope. But can we really say that, if we don’t reverse Russia’s acquisition of the Crimea, they’ll keep trying for more? And what is our stake in the Crimea? Russia certainly has more of a claim on the formerly Russian Crimea than Germany ever had over Poland and Austria.
[Our support for Ukraine might be justified if Russia were acting like Germany was acting before WW-II]
Russia has traditionally been the overweening imperial power in the region. It started over 600 years ago, when Dmitri Donskoi threw off the Mongol yoke. Today, Russia is almost 2x the size of the second largest country in the world (Canada). And yet it doesn’t yet have enough land. That’s not a sign of a country whose territorial ambitions will ever be sated.
Vienna was the capital of Germany for 1000 years.
Ukraine has abundant resources; coal, iron ore, and an agricultural segment that is very rich. It has strong industry with the huge Arcelor Steel mill, the Antonov aircraft company and others. Over 200 American companies do business there. I believe Russia wants them back and will try to take them over in time.
Germany and Austria weren’t two separately-defined nations until Germany was formed in 1871; prior to that, the confederation of German states was dominated by two large ones: Austria and Prussia. In 1866 Prussia beat Austria in a war, assuming leadership of the rest of the states and forcing Austria to dominate elsewhere (hence Austria-Hungary).
A problem for Ukraine is that they don’t have the clearly-defined borders or history that other countries had; Russia’s logic is the same it used when it invaded Georgia (that they had more claim to it, and represented the people better) - and the West did nothing then as well. While I hope an independent Ukraine flourishes, part of their predicament is caused by the fact that when the USSR broke up, rather than tighten their belts ASAP they raised cash by selling weaponry/military hardware. Probably regret that now...
The same interest we had in Crimea back in 1783 when Russia took it from the Turks, none.
Both Ukraine and Crimea were part of Russia, not the Soviet Union, for longer than the American Southwest has been part of the US. But hey, Victoria Nuland staged a coup there, and as all good Ukraine supporters know, anything the Obama regime did is right and the US should double down on it.
The fact is, only reason deep state scum give a damn about Ukraine is because the Neocon crowd want to turn it into another Libya to cause problems for Russia, Hungary, and Poland.
They're pissed at Russia over being run out of Russia before their puppets could finish raping Russia after the Soviet Union fell, and they're pissed at the other two for having the gall to reject the Neocon anti-Christ queer agenda.