Liberal Forum

The recommendations for chapter 3 include among other things "stopping" Nordstream 2 (the pipeline that was blown up). The focus is on using any and every aspect of America's might to force the Europeans to purchase gas from the USA instead of Russia - even though they are our "allies" and they would have the pay three times as much, which would cripple their economy.

Here is a table with the main take-aways:

Measure                                                              Benefits                        Costs and Risks                         Likelihood
Hinder petroleum exports                                    High                                 Low                                          High
Hinder natural gas exports and pipelines          High                                 Medium                                    Medium
Impose sanctions                                                 High                                  High                                         High
Enhance Russian brain drain                              Low                                   Low                                          Low

You can see where this is going. If you have hung in this far, you will likely peruse this paper on your own. If you do, you may make whatever conclusions you wish about the propriety and sagacity of American policy. I personally abhor it. You might feel very differently. But at least we will be arguing from facts and not propaganda.

Another area that the tourists should look into, if they don't want to remain tourists, is the big treaty of perpetual freindship between Russia and Ukraine. It was predicated on Ukraine honoring its Constitutional obligation of perpetual military neutrality (think Switzerland). The shallow and ignorant complaint that Ukraine "gave up its nukes" and then "got invaded for no reason" is exposed for silliness if one reads a basic summary of what the peaceful relations between Ukraine and Russia were based on. Ukraine was that giant stop sign of perpetual neutrality which was intended to be a buffer preventing any accidental military mixups between East and West. It was never countenanced by Russia, when it gave the Ukrainians a state in 1991 for the first time in their history, that Russia was agreeing to NATO missiles on its borders.