Russia doesn’t respect borders. Neither has the U.S.

[lazarus]

In light of Russia’s military movement into Crimea, it’s a good thing that the United States repudiated the Monroe Doctrine. In 1823, to deter European powers from military or political intervention in the emerging nations of Latin America, President James Monroe announced a policy implying that that region was our sphere of influence, not Europe’s. The United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine, along with the imperatives of the Cold War, to justify some of its own interventions there: in Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Chile, Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela — it’s a long list.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/h...f39c_story.html

[Naomi]

And ...

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

re: the Monroe Doctrine... "By giving more leeway to big regional players such as Colombia and Brazil, and not getting too worked up about the anti-American antics of strongmen in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, the [Obama] administration has tried to put U.S.-Latin American relations on a new footing.

And there was a ready-made guide in the last four years of the George W. Bush administration, which started the shift away from a heavy-handed approach to the Americas and a move toward mulitlateral diplomacy."

According to the above, the US has changed its stance toward Central and South American countries to one of diplomacy.

If the Monroe Doctrine historical line is to be attached to Russia, where's the diplomacy being shown to the Ukraine by Russia?

[Naomi]

Pam

[lazarus]

Who can blame him? After all, the United States, which has been unable to leave the Cold War behind, has treated Russia as a potential threat since the early 1990s and ignored its protests about NATO’s expansion and its objections to America’s plan to build missile defense systems in Eastern Europe.

One might expect American policymakers to understand Russia’s concerns about Ukraine joining a hostile alliance. After all, the United States is deeply committed to the Monroe Doctrine, which warns other great powers to stay out of the Western Hemisphere.

But few American policymakers are capable of putting themselves in Mr. Putin’s shoes. This is why they were so surprised when he moved additional troops into Crimea, threatened to invade eastern Ukraine, and made it clear Moscow would use its considerable economic leverage to undermine any regime in Kiev that was hostile to Russia.