Power Politics 101

I said the same thing the other day. He has more authority on the matter:

We should be pivoting out of Europe to deal with China in a laser-like fashion, number one. And, number two, we should be working overtime to create friendly relations with the Russians. The Russians are part of our balancing coalition against China. If you live in a world where there are three great powers—China, Russia, and the United States—and one of those great powers, China, is a peer competitor, what you want to do if you’re the United States is have Russia on your side of the ledger. Instead, what we have done with our foolish policies in Eastern Europe is drive the Russians into the arms of the Chinese. This is a violation of Balance of Power Politics 101.

His larger point is the US foreign policy brought us to this point by encouraging NATO/EU membership for Ukraine.

Side note: I'm not buying the "Putin has gone crazy" argument. That's really a statement of impotence - this idea of no matter what we do, he's gonna do this thing. You can argue "Ukraine should be free to do what it wants?" But if another man's wife flirts with you, they are "free" to do so, but it would be wise to discourage it and not be alone in a room with them. 

And, there's. more good stuff on a moral vs. strategic dimension:

In other words, what I’m saying to you, Isaac, is that when push comes to shove, strategic considerations overwhelm moral considerations. In an ideal world, it would be wonderful if the Ukrainians were free to choose their own political system and to choose their own foreign policy. 

But in the real world, that is not feasible. The Ukrainians have a vested interest in paying serious attention to what the Russians want from them. They run a grave risk if they alienate the Russians in a fundamental way. If Russia thinks that Ukraine presents an existential threat to Russia because it is aligning with the United States and its West European allies, this is going to cause an enormous amount of damage to Ukraine.

One might easily come to this conclusion if instead of studying social justice, we studied maps.