Friday, April 08, 2022

Diplomatic horsefeathers

Today, apparently Russian foreign bullshit artist foreign minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that Belarus, from which Russia launched her attack on northern Ukraine, and from whence Russia is launching a ton of rockets at civilian targets to this day, is somehow a good candidate for a nation to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.  In related news, Adolf Hitler, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Haman have called from Hell and are volunteering to protect the national security of Israel.

It is perhaps understandable that the Russian foreign minister might do this, but let's take a look at reality vs. the security guarantees that were given to Ukraine at independence.  More or less, in exchange for the nuclear weapons that were in Ukraine, the signing nations (including Russia) agreed to guarantee the territorial integrity of Ukraine.  It sort of made sense to the diplomats at the time, but anyone with functioning neurons ought to have imagined this scenario.

Diplomat: Mr. President, Russia has invaded Ukraine.  It's time for us to do what we can to guarantee their territorial integrity.

President (of either party):  Are you (redacted) nuts?  They have nukes.

Which is, of course, exactly what's gone on, and it's exactly why someone needs to have something of a "come to Jesus moment" with diplomats and politicians, telling them if you have no intention of ever enforcing the provisions of an agreement, please don't write it down and sign it.

The reason is simple; if Ukraine had figured out that their security guarantees were worthless (and to be fair, they should have), they likely would have made some very different decisions regarding national security, perhaps looking much more like the Swiss model.  And so we might add another proverb; if you know a diplomatic agreement is nonsense, don't act as if it is binding.

And of course, as always, Putin delenda est!

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