In Ukraine, beware the Cold War zombie apocalypse

[bemildred]

The most threatening thing Vladimir Putin has done in eastern Ukraine, worse than his massing of troops and trumping-up of separatist movements, is the way the Russian President has unleashed, on our shores, a zombie apocalypse.

These zombies, raising their crumbling limbs from the dank soil of think tanks, university departments and military alliances, are the Cold War hawks. Shaking off the loam of a quarter-century’s irrelevance, they have used Mr. Putin’s moment of nastiness as an opening to stagger en masse onto TV news shows and op-ed pages and, we fear, into ministers’ offices, where they foul the air with their very bad ideas.

We need to “show strength” and deliver a “robust response,” lest the West appear to be “in retreat” and insufficiently “assertive,” making us “vulnerable” to attacks from those who see our weakness. We should send ground troops marching to the banks of the Dnieper, and aircraft carriers into the Black Sea, because “this is the only language Putin understands.” What these soldiers are meant to do, we’re never really told.

It’s time to get the pitchforks. The Cold Warriors have a consistent record of being wrong.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/get-the-pitchforks-the-cold-warriors-are-back/article18571329/

[independentpiney]

1. Good article

One thing that's certain is that the cold warriors were always wrong with regards to Soviet military capabilities. I do disagree with the author that eastern Ukraine would be economically useless for Russia. I'd think it more accurate to say that it's economically unnecessary.

[The Magistrate]

2. Pretty Sound, Sir

I would point out that, though it lacks the same degree of mainstream access, a similar cadre of zombie has arisen on the left, where the old instincts of Cold War alignment against the U.S. in support of Russia can be observed, in a full rhetorical flower.

[bemildred]

3. I prefer to think that everyone has simply lost their minds, Sir.

It is hard to top those old leftist sectarian battles for sheer futile excess. The Christian church gave it a pretty good go back in the days of Constantine too. Still, we all do the best we can with what we have today.

[The Magistrate]

4. It Does Have Explanatory Power, Sir

I think a portion of it is nostalgia for simpler times ( not all that different from teasing my grandsons with the nickle price of candy bars when quarters were silver and you got one a week for allowance... ), and some of it, too, is simple reflex response that has not had much call made on it lately --- a good many of the worst offenders on the left are no spring chickens.

[Jefferson23]

5. Recommend.

Still puzzling why we did not respond from the get go but yea..

**...strong economic sanctions, tough but constant dialogue and sensible exploitation of Moscow’s weakness.