{"id":1739,"date":"2014-08-31T14:32:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T13:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ofcourseimright.com\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2014-09-09T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T09:54:08","slug":"how-do-you-deal-with-a-bully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/?p=1739","title":{"rendered":"How do you deal with a bully?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past year this blog has been quiet.\u00a0 I cannot, however, remain quiet any longer about the situation in Russia.\u00a0 Even back in 2008 I wrote<\/a> that Vladimir Putin was trouble, that the Cold War was back on, and that President Bush stood idly by.\u00a0 It would be bad enough to say that nothing has changed, but since then, things have gotten worse, and for the Ukraine, a lot worse.<\/p>\n

Once again the world stands at the brink of war with a maniac, and we wonder how to avoid it.\u00a0 Those Russians who resist the kook are subject to harassment or arrest.\u00a0 The casual relationship Mr. Putin has with the truth makes negotiations\u00a0 impossible.\u00a0 It would be bad enough if it were just the Ukraine that was put through this nightmare.\u00a0 But Estonia has suffered cyberattacks from Russia, and it is a sure bet that the rest of the world has suffered them as well.<\/p>\n

All of this because the Ukraine dared enforce their democracy to establish stronger economic ties with the European Union, against their neighbor’s will.\u00a0 And when it was shown that threatening to turn off the gas was not enough to dissuade Ukrainians, Mr. Putin invaded.<\/p>\n

There are very few steps between where we are now and opened armed conflict beyond the Ukraine.\u00a0 Knowing this, rather than seeking peaceful resolution to the situation, Mr. Putin rattled his large nuclear sword<\/a>, like bullies flex their muscles.<\/p>\n

But there are a few.<\/p>\n

Europe took additional steps this week to attempt to restrain this great bear, and one knows that Russia has transgressed when the leaders of the EU can agree on something.\u00a0 Whether it is enough to keep the peace in the Ukraine and to keep Russia’s domineering presence at bay is a question only Mr. Putin can answer.<\/p>\n

Europe ought not stand alone when dealing with this threat.\u00a0 The United States has a role to play by supporting Europe in arranging for alternative sources of fuel.\u00a0 Other leaders need to stand up and say that this is not a way for a superpower to behave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past year this blog has been quiet.\u00a0 I cannot, however, remain quiet any longer about the situation in Russia.\u00a0 Even back in 2008 I wrote that Vladimir Putin was trouble, that the Cold War was back on, and that President Bush stood idly by.\u00a0 It would be bad enough to say that nothing … Continue reading “How do you deal with a bully?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1744,"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions\/1744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}