THE BREADBASKET OF EUROPE IS NOW A BASKET CASE

The title of this piece, that regards Ukraine,* is not original with me, but I couldn't resist using it.  But I am getting increasingly upset with certain politicians who insist on undermining our President in foreign relations.  Prominent, of course, is senile John McCain who seemingly never saw a war he didn't like; however, when pressed by Charley Rose as to what should be done over the Soviet, I mean Russian, occupation of the Crimea said that the first thing he would do is to freeze the foreign assets and visas of the Russian oligarchs, something that Secretary John Kerry has mentioned as a possibility.

I'm also disappointed in Lindsey Graham, Senator of South Carolina, for his comments making fun of the President in a serious international incident, as, at times, he has shown some statesmanship.  Supposedly the reason he is doing this is because of his Tea Party challenge in his reelection bid.  Unfortunately, this puts his reelection ahead of his country.  He seems to think that we should have bombarded the leader of Syria even after the promise of getting rid of the poisonous gases.  Unfortunately, there are no good solutions in Syria as if  Assad is overthrown the real civil war will begin with the likelihood that the country will become a conservative Muslim state like Iran.   As awful as the situation is in Syria, perhaps the best state is a status quo.

At the age of 82, I do remember some things in the lead up to WW-II, and the Russian occupation of the Crimea to "protect" the Ukrainian citizens of Russian heritage reminds me a lot of the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland** to protect citizens of German heritage at the very beginning of WW-II.  I don't recall any news about threats to the Russian speaking peoples anywhere in Ukraine.  And Putin does seem to be trying to generate an excuse for more occupation of Ukraine by having some of his soldiers shoot over the heads of some Ukrainian troops:
But not every scene was so calm. Video showed more than 100 unarmed Ukrainian troops trying Tuesday morning to return to Belbek air base north of Sevastopol, only to have Russian forces fire warning shots over their heads.***

As the situation in Ukraine is still in flux, I have little more to say at this time.

History of Ukraine:

Crimea has had a long and complex history but more recently for more than 300 yrs it was a part of Turkey, then in 1783 became a part of Russia, more or less, and then of the Soviet Union.  Mysteriously, Kruschov gave the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954.  Speculation is that he was drunk at the time.  Crimea has spent little time as an independent nation though it was called the Autonomous Republic of  Crimea.  It became recognized as a part of Ukraine by Russia in 1997.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea).

Eastern Ukraine has been largely Russian since late in the 17th century.  In 1991, 75% of ethnic Russian said they no longer identified themselves as Russian and 55% voted for Ukrainian independence.  Many Russian speaking Ukrainians bemoan the fact that Russian is not an accepted official language of Ukraine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Ukraine)

Western Ukraine likewise has a complicated history and was a part of Poland most of the time for several hundred years which ended in 1939.  After WW-II, Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with some independence from the Soviet Union.  West Ukraine is largely west looking.  Though the country is largely of the Eastern Orthodox religion, around 4 million Roman Catholics are present, mainly in western Ukraine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Ukraine; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine)

* http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/bread-basket-europe.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Czechoslovakia
*** http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/04/world/europe/ukraine-russia-tensions/