Update: The letter was published on March 12, 2014.
To the editor:
Two more names for Americans to ponder: Ukraine and Crimea.
What's going on, who are the players, what are the issues, why do we care?
If you listen to the mainstream media, to many members of
Congress, and the Obama administration, you're told that at issue is a
"fight for freedom" between good guys – activists who forcibly ousted
the elected (probably corrupt, pro-Russian) government of Ukraine – and bad
guys, namely, Russia (Vladimir Putin), who seeks to maintain influence over
Ukraine and control over the Crimean Peninsula, where Russia's Black Sea fleet
is based. These mainstream voices argue that we – EU, NATO and, of course, the
U.S. – should become involved, by sanctions, by deployment of arms, by aid to
the non-Russian side.
Others argue that the West has unduly meddled in the
Ukraine, that battles of the region are historical, cultural, economic and
complex, and that the West shouldn't intervene in any form; and that Crimea,
largely ethnic Russian, should exercise self-determination of whether to
separate from Ukraine.
As a responsible American, I know this: I don't have a dog
in this fight. Nor do I have a dog in Syria's fight, in Iraq's, in Iran's, in
Libya's, in Somalia's, in Yemen's, in Afghanistan's, in Egypt's – in short, in
anyone's fight but our own, here at home. I wish I could blow a silent whistle
to bring all our dogs home to fight our own battles – against economic
inequity, to achieve fairness and good health and humane care for all
Americans.
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