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Townhall
Finance
Energy's
Role in the Path to Peace
Dr.
Ben Carson
Mar
26, 2014
While
the media have been focused on the missing Malaysian aircraft,
massive alterations of the world's geopolitical terrain are underway
simultaneously.
The
annexation of Crimea by Russia should not have been a surprise for
anyone who suspects that President Vladimir Putin is trying to
re-establish a powerful Soviet-style empire. When he aggressively
attacked Georgia in 2008 after both Georgia and Ukraine failed to
obtain NATO admission at the Bucharest Summit, we should have
realized that his goals were not limited to one territory. I suspect
he is now calculating an excuse to occupy the easiest regions of
Ukraine first and then the whole country over time.
The
United States encouraged Ukraine to give up its nuclear arsenal and
to de-emphasize its military complex, but in its moment of dire need
for tangible support, will we have the courage and fortitude to help
stop Russian aggression, which ultimately could lead to another Cold
War or worse?
Many
probably have forgotten the worldwide turmoil created during the Cold
War, which ended a quarter-century ago. Allowing conditions to mature
that might re-create another dominant world power hostile toward the
United States could easily reinforce those radical elements who wish
to see the demise of this nation. One of the ways we permit such
conditions to arise is through our fiscal irresponsibility, which
substantially weakens us because the borrower is subservient to the
lender. Can we be objective in our treatment of nations, no matter
what their actions, if we owe them great sums of money?
Ronald
Reagan facilitated the demise of the Soviet Union without firing a
single shot. He enacted policies that resulted in a financial
meltdown that ended the brutal Soviet reign. The recent precipitous
fall of the Russian stock market cannot go unnoticed by Putin, and
more financial pressure applied immediately could give pause to his
grandiose schemes. We could freeze Russian financial assets,
downgrade trade associations or rapidly establish energy production
policies to free the European Union from the Russian energy
stranglehold...
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the rest of the article at Townhall Finance
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