Here is another vivid example of why short-term thinking that plagues American politics is dangerous.
The other day, President Obama finally declared economic sanctions against 11 of Russia’s politicians. Among them, only one is somewhat involved in what is happening in Ukraine. The rest have nothing whatsoever to do with the issue. They also don’t have a whole lot of importance in Russian politics. For instance, Elena Mizulina is a loud homophobe and promoter of ultra-patriarchal values. She appears on TV shows to yell and foam at the mouth. For Putin, she is a useful clown, nothing more. Mizulina has zero political influence on her own and is nothing but a silly, bumbling pawn. In Russia, both the Putinoids and the dissidents are laughing at the ridiculousness of these “sanctions” that don’t really punish anybody for anything.
Based on everything that the White House has been doing about the situation in Ukraine, I have a very strong suspicion that there is simply nobody in the President’s entourage who is capable of analyzing the situation in the region and advising Obama accordingly.
In 1991, Americans unilaterally and baselessly declared that the Cold War was now over and hastened to dismantle every program of study that trained specialists capable of understanding Russia. Now it will take forever to create at least a few places where such professionals would be educated. We are talking about really tiny amounts of money here that in no way impacted the economy of the country as a whole. Still, these puny little “savings” mattered more than the need to train specialists who’d understand what was happening in the largest country on the planet.
Clarissa's Blog 
Are there any foreign policy matters of which much the same could not legitimately be said?
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It’s hard for me to say because I’m not as aware of what goes on in other countries. I am, however, intimately familiar with what is happening in Ukraine and I’m convinced that the White House’s activities in Ukraine have been based on one blunder after another. If it’s the same in other areas of foreign policy, then this is just tragic.
I keep thinking about Mitt Romney’s words that “Russia is our #1 geopolitical foe.” I said then and I repeat now that, my dislike of Romney notwithstanding, he was absolutely, completely and totally right.
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As a matter of coincidence, I was lecturing on The Communist Manifesto today, and I mentioned that when I was growing up, we were all afraid of the Russians. So of course, I’ve been very interested in all that has been happening in Ukraine, since Russians are my boogie-men. I said that America’s silly sanctions of these officials are a very capitalist response, but that the Russians are surely laughing their asses off at us.
NPR has had several people on comparing Putin to Hitler. I think the difference is that Putin might get away with this.
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