Monday, July 21, 2014

Weak Knights On The Military Channel

The perpetual war party is upset that we haven't bombed us some pro-Russian Ukranian separatists yet, and they are making their displeasure known.  And yes, this includes both Republicans and Democrats, like Tennessee's Bob Corker, and New Jersey's Bob Menendez.

“Clearly President Putin has created the set of circumstances and has supplied the resources … to the rebels so that this tragedy could take place,” said Menendez, the chairman of the panel, said on the "Fox News Sunday" program. 
“For me, I think the West, including the [United States], has to have a far more significant response than we’ve seen to date,” he said. 
Corker, the committee's top Republican, told Fox's Chris Wallace that the United States is only emboldening Putin by not helping Ukraine. 
“This incident is incredibly tragic, to watch what's happening with these bodies,” he said. “What is also tragic is the response that the West has given up until this point. And in many ways, because of that cautious response, Russia has continued to foment all the problems that they've created in Eastern Ukraine.” 
In addition to being disappointed with the U.S. response, he said that he hoped European governments would also be acting more forcefully.

Only one problem, boys:  the American people don't want anything to do with another war.

Amid deepening violence across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Americans are recoiling from direct engagement overseas and oppose U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine by large margins, according to a POLITICO poll of 2014 battleground voters. 
The survey provides a unique look at the foreign policy attitudes of voters who will decide the most competitive Senate and House races this fall. It shows an intensely skeptical view of American military intervention:

Asked whether the U.S should do more to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine, just 17 percent answered in the affirmative. Thirty-one percent said the current policy is correct and 34 percent said the U.S. should be less involved. The poll was completed before the downing last week of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the civilian airliner that was apparently attacked over eastern Ukraine.

And I can't imagine the downing of MH17 to move the needle more than a few points.  Our last adventure cost us thousands of troops and trillions of dollars and helped to ruin our economy.  Getting tougher with Putin is not our problem.  Hell, we've got enough of our own to worry about.


No comments:

Post a Comment