Why is the West so against Russias annexation of Crimea? Im asking whoever is reading this to educate me. It seems the main reasons are that America and Europe are afraid of Russia gaining more power and influence in their spheres, that Putin is going rogue, and that the annexation was against international law. But, the first reasons just sound selfish — You dont get to be powerful, just we do, and more importantly, influential countries break international law all the time. Examples in the US include wiretapping foreign leaders, invading other sovereignties in drone strikes and killing the citizens of other countries without their consent, and even storming a Pakistani compound and executing Bin Laden without telling the Pakistani government (that mightve been a good deed, but it was illegal). International law is arguably designed to keep smaller countries in line because nobody can touch larger countries if they break them anyways. On the other hand, Crimea really wanted to join Russia — 97% of the people voted for it. Ukraine has been split culturally between the Ukrainian speaking West including Kiev and the Russian speaking East including Crimea. This schism has led to disfunction in politics and a Europe vs. Russia tug-of-war within the country. Now that Crimeas gone, shouldnt the rest of Ukraine celebrate because now they can align themselves with Europe and get help from the IMF, the source of the original uprising in November? Doesnt this benefit everyone? There has been plenty of historical cases involving a territory split into two countries and the heartbreak that accompanies it, like Russia and Ukraine in 1991. We still hear about North and South Koreans yearning to reunify their country. India and Pakistan are still smarting over Britains sloppy job at partitioning. In these three cases, families were ripped apart by politics, their cultural fabric interrupted by a heartless border. Now that Crimea has reunified with Russia, the people are celebrating. The New York Times reports that people are crying with joy. So explain, wise Facebookers, what legitimate grounds do the West have in opposing the annexation? Am I wrong in these arguments? What am I missing from the picture? Ben, Roland, and Dake, I thought you might have bitterly opposing views that I want to hear.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 20:30:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015