Op-ed: The Case for Staying Out of Crimea’s Affairs
By Alex LaRosa
Staff Writer
Warning to the readers: this is my first opinion article for the iGlobe, and in all likelihood, it will not earn me any friends. So, apologies in advance for any worldviews shattered or confidence in mankind destroyed, but here goes my first libertarian diatribe to be published on this site.
What do Hungary, Japan, and South Korea have in common? What about Germany, Greece, and Jordan? The answer: all of these nations have United States military personnel stationed there. In fact, according to CNN, the United States stations troops in almost 150 different nations (CNN). Many of these nations, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, or Pakistan, resent our presence there. Some, such as Germany and Japan, keep US soldiers as a relic of the Second World War. So with all these “boots on the ground” in just about every nation in the world, why is it that Americans get so upset when Russia seeks to control the Crimea?
I would even go a step further from that. Because of the United States’ presence in just about every nation on this planet, it comes across as very ironic when our politicians tell Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull his soldiers out of his neighbor states. In fact, the United States has no right to tell other countries not to invade their neighbors.
Before I go on, let’s compare American meddling to Russian meddling. Again, the United States stations soldiers in almost 150 different nations. There is no way I could list off all these nations here and still retain readership of the article, so I will spare everybody from what would be an exhaustingly long list. However, Russian troops make their home in exactly 9 nations, 10 if one includes Crimea (Al Jazeera).
I’ll list off these nations so that we get a context of where Russia meddles in foreign affairs: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tajikistan, Moldova, and Vietnam. With a quick check of the map of the world, one would notice that besides Vietnam and Syria, all these nations border Russia. Of course, Russia’s presence in Vietnam started as a reaction to America’s presence, and meanwhile in Syria, they only station their Navy—meaning no actual boots on the ground.
An analogy might help here. Consider Russia as that somewhat shy fellow who makes friends with those around him and socially, doesn’t venture much further than their circle of friends. Meanwhile, America is more like the very outgoing fellow who wants to make friends with everybody, whether they want to be friends or not. Naturally, in both nations’ cases, by “making friends,” I mean invading, conquering, or otherwise just inserting a military presence into these nations.
So then, back on-topic: the outgoing America has “made friends” with practically every nation in the world (since there are 190 or so nations, and we occupy about 150 of them). As the German metal band Rammstein put it, “We’re all living in America!” Despite this, when Russia seeks to gain more control over its neighbors in Ukraine, Americans get upset.
Now some people would argue that it is one thing for the United States to invade Afghanistan as a response to the 9/11 attacks on American soil, while it is a completely different beast in the case of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Crimea. I would agree with that, to a certain extent. Unprovoked attacks, be it by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, or Vladimir Putin, should not go unpunished.
However, let’s flash back to a mere decade ago, when the presence of invisible WMDs triggered an American invasion of Iraq. Remember what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Under that logic, America invaded an unoffending nation.
So are Russia and America really all that different? I would wager that they are really one in the same, only that America outnumbers Russia in terms of where we put soldiers. Sure, some of these nations we occupy are merely embassy security, but a lot of them are active bases, with soldiers ready to fight whomever the US government deems a threat. So for the last time, isn’t it hypocritical for America to cry foul when Russia simply plays our game at a more local level?
Thanks for reading. I’d love to see your reactions and opinions in the comments section below, so take a moment out of your busy lives and tell me what you think!
Works Cited
CNN. U.S. military personnel by country. 2011. 19 January 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/04/us/table.military.troops/>.
Varshalomidze, Tamila, and Mohsin Ali. "Interactive: Russia's Foreign Military Bases." Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera Media Network, 3 May 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2014/05/interactive-russia-foreign-military-bases-201459104513678477.html>.