Ukraine, Another of the World’s Tails That Wag Dogs

According to CNN, US and NATO Responses on Ukraine Fail to Address Russia's Main Concerns

So says Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and he’s right, not necessarily that his concerns are valid, but that they have not been adequately addressed.

And we know what they are.

It’s not like we haven’t been paying attention. Russia has what, in my mind, is a perfectly logical complaint from their point of view—perhaps not ours, but certainly theirs. It’s all about NATO. Putin said in 2000 that he “cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilized world.”

That was twenty-two years ago and since then we have rebuffed Russia in every way possible, including paralyzing financial sanctions. But the longing is there, perched along the top of all of Europe, looking in. I’m reminded of an old joke: “I wrote her every day for two years and she never responded, so I broke up the correspondence.”

We ought not break this ‘correspondence’ while it still has life and hope.…