Crimea

[walto]

Curious what people have to say about this. Is it like Obama saying "You know, 2/3 of the people living in Vancouver are actually American and would prefer to be part of the U.S. (you can ask them!) so I'm going to annex Vancouver"? And then the Mounties try to come in from Quebec or someplace where everybody speaks French and the Vancouverites (sp?) stop them because they really do want to have more Subways per square foot there? And also they like FOX and want to win lots of Olympic medals next time?

Or would it also have to be the case that Vancouver was once part of the State of Washington? Like maybe Lyndon Johnson gave it to Trudeau by mistake while he (Johnson, not Trudeau) was sitting on the toilet or something like that?

I'm just trying to get a sense of this whole business.

[walto]

I heard one British pundit on the radio say something like this: "You don't understand, the Russian elite has never been to Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan--they don't care about those places one way or the other. But the Crimea is quite different. That's where they vacationed regularly; that's where they first got laid; that's where they first tried cannabis. They have very engaging memories about the swimming there. It just feels like it must belong to them."

[Monte Smith]

There is a reason the Russians colonized and ethnically cleansed Crimea generations ago: so that it would be Russian. Sheesh.

[jwaggs]

Sevastopol is Russia's only warm water port. They aren't going to turn it over to NATO.

Given that Russia has been invaded by the West on and off since the 13th century, starting with the Teutonic Knights, and, more recently Napoleon and Hitler, Putin thought it strategically wise to maintain a critical military base.

[Monte Smith]

I just hope Obama is as furiously Googling "Crimea" as his supporters and detractors on the internet are.

[walto]

There is a reason the Russians colonized and ethnically cleansed Crimea generations ago: so that it would be Russian. Sheesh.

Yeah, but a decent democracy would never do stu......

Oh, wait.

[BeBop]

I've spent years in the region (Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the USSR and former components thereof). For me, it's like my experience of he United States: there are the people and there is the politics/government. I care deeply about one and the other only to extent that it affects the part I care about.

As a person not directly affected, I've no right to an opinion. They - these people - remain in my heart.

[BFrank]

The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want U.S. to intervene