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Robert Kaplan of Stratfor wrote a piece that could be a companion to the Pickings introduction about Russia from last week. Only, his is more elegantly written.
The Obama administration claims it is motivated by the G-8, interdependence, human rights and international law. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a more traditional historical actor. He is motivated by geopolitics. That is why he temporarily has the upper hand in the crisis over Ukraine and Crimea.
Geopolitics, according to the mid-20th century U.S. diplomat and academic Robert Strausz-Hupe, is “the struggle for space and power,” played out in a geographical setting. Geopolitics is eternal, ever since Persia was the world’s first superpower in antiquity. …
… It isn’t that geography and geopolitics supersede everything else, including Western values and human agency. Not at all! Rather, it is that geography in particular is the starting point for understanding everything else. Only by respecting geography in the first place can Western values and human ingenuity overcome it. …
… To wit, the late military historian John Keegan explains that Great Britain and the United States could champion freedom only because the sea protected them “from the landbound enemies of liberty.” Alexander Hamilton observed that had Britain not been an island, its military establishment would have been just as overbearing as those of continental Europe, and Britain “would in all probability” have become “a victim to the absolute power of a single man.” …
… Geography is no less relevant to the 21st century than it has been throughout history. Communications technology has not erased geography; rather, it has only made it more claustrophobic, so that each region of the earth interacts with every other one as never before. Intensifying this claustrophobia is the growth of cities — another geographical phenomenon. The earth is smaller than ever, thanks to technology. But like a tiny wristwatch with all of its mechanisms, you have to disaggregate its geographical parts and features in order to understand how it works.
Thus, any international relations strategy must emanate initially from the physical terrain upon which we all live. And because geopolitics emanates from geography, it will never go away or become irrelevant. Strausz-Hupe had it right. If liberal powers do not engage in geopolitics, they will only leave the playing field to their enemies who do. For even evolved liberal states, such as those in America and Europe, are not exempt from the battle for survival. Such things as the G-8, human rights and international law can and must triumph over geography. But that is only possible if geopolitics becomes part of the strategy of the West.
Along a similar vein, Jennifer Rubin asks non-interventionist libertarians how the inter-dependent world is working out?
One of the key assumptions of non-interventionist libertarians (who rankle at the term “isolationist”) is that through trade and economic integration we can woo our enemies and make a profit all at the same time. The only problem is that it is almost never true.
Seth Mandel points out that letting Russia into the World Trade Organization didn’t make it less aggressive: “It’s because the economic integration of Russia has done precisely the opposite of what it was expected to do in one crucial regard: the recent events in Ukraine and the West’s unsteady response indicate Russia’s increased leverage instead.” That is because the West’s business interests become invested (literally) in a new market (thereby weakening support for any kind of sanctions) and because the aggressor gets economic benefits at no costs. …
Ann Coulter recaps Dem disasters in foreign policy from Kennedy to the present.
… When Obama took office, al Qaida had been routed in Iraq — from Fallujah, SadrCity and Basra. Muqtada al-Sadr — the Dr. Phil of Islamofascist radicalism — had waddled off in retreat to Iran. The Iraqis had a democracy, a miracle on the order of flush toilets in Afghanistan.
By Bush’s last year in office, monthly casualties in Iraq were coming in slightly below a weekend with Justin Bieber. In 2008, there were more than three times as many homicides in Chicago as U.S. troop deaths in the Iraq War. (Chicago: 509; Iraq: 155).
On May 30, The Washington Post reported: “CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays (al-Qaida) as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world …” Even hysterics at The New York Times admitted that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups had nearly disappeared from Southeast Asia by 2008.
A few short years into Obama’s presidency — and al-Qaida is back! For purely political reasons, as soon as he became president, Obama removed every last troop from Iraq, despite there being Americans troops deployed in dozens of countries around the world.
In 2004, nearly 100 soldiers, mostly Marines, died in the battle to take Fallujah from al-Qaida. Today, al-Qaida’s black flag flies above Fallujah.
Bush won the war, and Obama gave it back.
Obama couldn’t be bothered with preserving America’s victory in Iraq. He was busy helping to topple a strong American ally in Egypt and a slavish American minion in Libya — in order to install the Muslim Brotherhood in those countries instead. …
Since we spent a lot of time looking at failures, we need an expanded humor section. Tim Stanley caught Chelsea Handler explained to Piers Morgan why he failed. Follow the link if you’d like to see the video.
There’s been a lot of debate about why Piers Morgan lost his CNN talk show. A couple of days ago the comedian Chelsea Handler gave him a definitive explanation. Piers was “interviewing” her, they cut to an ad break, and when they returned they had this priceless exchange.
PIERS: You tweet very amusingly.
CHELSEA: I wish you did.
PIERS: Ha.
CHELSEA: I mean in the middle of the commercial break — I want your viewers to know, although they must know, because they’re probably following you on Twitter. I mean you can’t even pay attention for 60 seconds. You’re a terrible interviewer.
PIERS: Well you just weren’t keeping my attention.
CHELSEA: That’s not my problem.
PIERS: That is your problem.
CHELSEA: This is your show. You have to pay attention to the guests that you invited on your show.
PIERS: If they’re interesting enough.
CHELSEA: Yeah, listen. It doesn’t matter how interesting I am. You signed up for this job.
PIERS: Of course it does.
CHELSEA: Well, maybe that’s why your job is coming to an end.
PIERS: Wow.
CHELSEA: Wow.It’s better watched that read, because that way you can hear Piers’ painful laughter.
More humor from Power Line with the best obit, ever.
There was quite a lot of notice given to this obituary last November of Leonard Smith, who asked that in lieu of flowers, “the family asks that you cancel your subscription to The New York Times.” A rather sensible suggestion.
But I think I’ve found one that is even better from earlier this week, for Walter George Bruhl, a retired chemical company executive. Highlights:
Walter George Bruhl Jr. of Newark and Dewey Beach is a dead person; he is no more; he is bereft of life; he is deceased; he has rung down the curtain and gone to join the choir invisible; he has expired and gone to meet his maker. . .
There will be no viewing since his wife refuses to honor his request to have him standing in the corner of the room with a glass of Jack Daniels in his hand so he would appear natural to visitors.
Cremation will take place at the family’s convenience, and his ashes will be kept in an urn until they get tired of having it around. What’s a Grecian Urn? Oh, about 200 drachmas a week.
RIP, Mr. Bruhl. You sound like the kind of person I would like to have met.
We finish with late night humor from Andrew Malcolm.
SethMeyers: President Obama appeared on an online comedy show the other day. The president was there to talk about his own online comedy show, ObamaCare.
SethMeyers: Sunday’s Crimean vote to join Russia has no option for “No.” Only two boxes on the ballot — one for “yes,” and one for “murder my family.”
Conan: Obama is threatening Putin now. The U.S. president says if Russia doesn’t pull out of Crimea, he won’t lend Putin any of the money that we’ve borrowed from China.
Fallon: The College Board is revamping SATs to focus on what college students really need. The SAT is now just one question: “How much money do your parents have?”