Dear Editor:
On August 26, the U.S. Department of State reported Secretary John Kerry’s remarks about his daylong meeting with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov: “Obviously, our nations are working on a number of different issues together, trying to resolve, along with other countries, each of these issues, including Ukraine, which we chatted about. But mostly today we focused on the crisis in Syria.”
Someone at the State Department thought long and hard how to describe the conversation about Ukraine. They certainly came up with a formulation that truly will satisfy Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is an afterthought for the U.S. First, “working together on a number of issues,” i.e., that Russia is a partner in resolving the problem, not its cause. And, second that the Ukraine “issue” is of such little significance that they merely “chatted” about it.
It is frightening to have the secretary of state characterize as “chatting” his direct discourse with the foreign affairs minister of Russia about a country where Russia is presently engaged in a military invasion, causing the death of over 10,000, the maiming of thousands more, dislocation of over 1.5 million and billions of dollars in wanton destruction. And, to say they are “working together” on the issue is beyond the pale, especially when Russia on that very same day was mobilizing tens of thousands of troops along its border, in occupied Crimea and in the occupied parts of the Donbas.
Is this the message about the level of his commitment to support Ukraine in resisting Russia’s war that President Barack Obama wants to send to Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Poland and the Baltic countries?
Mr. Kerry, please be advised: one chats about one’s golf game with friends. The United States secretary of state does not chat about an ongoing war in Europe with the aggressor.
Troy, Mich.