Face it, I am a normal person, very attuned to the issues of the world, and I can only find stuff to write/talk about for 30 minutes a few days a month. What in the world can you do to fill up 24 hours day after day?
It appears that I missed the sensitivity of Russia to Nato's expansion east. Of course, I knew that they were unhappy whenever this started 8 or 10 or ? years ago. But I didn't know that this was a reason for the quick war in Georgia (the country not the state) in 2008. So you would have thought the EU would have shown a little bit of sensitivty when trying to rescue the Ukraine financially. Of course, the reason I didn't short the Ukraine was the fact that I thought they would agree to an IMF program and conduct sensible economic policies that would have stabilized the economy. Instead, Yanakovich (sp?) was so corrupt and crooked that he turned that down in favor of a Russia financial rescue that allowed the unstable policy mix to continue. And we see where that got him? A dacha near Moscow supported with money in Cyprus no doubt. And it got the Ukraine and the world in the current situation.
But I really wanted to reference Thomas Friedman's column this morning. He deserves the big bucks for being able to write coherent insightful columns like this on a regular basis.
Link to Friedman's column
And I love his 1st paragraph because it inspired by title and introductory paragraph so I copy it below.
"Just as we’ve turned the coverage of politics into sports, we’re doing the same with geopolitics. There is much nonsense being written about how Vladimir Putin showed how he is “tougher” than Barack Obama and how Obama now needs to demonstrate his manhood. This is how great powers get drawn into the politics of small tribes and end up in great wars that end badly for everyone. We vastly exaggerate Putin’s strength — so does he — and we vastly underestimate our own strength, and ability to weaken him through nonmilitary means."
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