Ukraine, We Kraine, EVERYBODY KRAINE! or "Stop or I'll Stop again!" Day 4 of ????

 (In case you are wondering, the "stop" line is from an old joke about English Bobbies trying to stop a fleeing criminal.)

As the situation in the Ukraine (Or as I like to call it, Afghanistan the Sequel) drags on, all of the major powers are making noises about Russia's actions. Strong talk (okay sort of strong talk) about sanctions and boycotts are dancing around the tables in both the EU and the US. Everyone is rattling their sabers and sounding tougher than nails. The question is just how much will be done and exactly what it will accomplish.

Lets face facts boys and girls, there ain't a whole lot that any nation/s can do in this situation short of out and out military action. A good example of this are the member nations of the EU. Sure, they can talk tough talk about “punitive measures” and “strong economic steps,” but they have to face the fact that there really isn't much they can do without really honking off Russia. Since they import the majority of their natural gas from Momma Russia, peeving off the source of the thing that keeps you from freezing to death is a bad thing. So the EU actually doing anything other than talking is slim.

Then we have the UN. Sure they can impose sanction after sanction, but let us face the facts. Name a single time in UN history where their sanctions and harsh (but diplomatically phrased words) have ever really accomplished anything on their own? Once again, short of some form of direct military action, there still ain't a lot they can do.

Then there is the good old US of A. Now we are a tad more headstrong than the older nations overseas so we might take a tad more direct action. Scary Kerry has already announced that the US will be sending money to the Ukraine to help them out. Since we are not as dependent as Europe on Russia's largess, we might impose stronger and louder sanctions against them for their “unprecedented” (really, Russia invading another country is unprecedented?) invasion of the Ukraine. Heck we might even toss in some “military advisors” since we are kind of big on doing that. Still, none of this will do much to stop Russia from moving further into the Ukraine if they bloody well feel like it.

In short, if Russia decides to take back the Ukraine, there isn't much anyone can do about it besides yell at least at this point. Sure we can send in money and supplies to the people fighting against them, but that is pretty much about it. So break out the strongly worded letters, folks! Remember that the pen may be mightier than the sword, but probably not as mighty as the AK-47.

End of Rant