Chicken Kiev?

 

 

 

"Wait a minute! This has nothing to do with food!"

 

 

One pundit on the national news this morning, said something very profound. The biggest mystery this month may not have been the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Rather the mystery may be what Vladimir Putin is going to do with Ukraine, in particular Kiev.

 

As of this posting, 20,000 Russian troops are massed on the Ukrainian border. In fact, the taking of Crimea was such a cake walk, most of the troops have been pulled out of Crimea and sent to the Ukrainian border. The question was raised - if the Russians decide to go into Kiev and take the Ukraine, what are our options?

 

Here they are, worst to first:

• Hit Russia with the next one or two tranches of sanctions. These are referred to as the "cutting off your nose despite your face" sanctions. Why? The blow back hurts us also. And they really hurt Europe when the gas from Moscow gets shut off.
• Pledge almost $20B in military aid to the Ukraine. Ha! And where will that money come from? And what will they do with it? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
• Authorize all permitting which will allow us to export as much natural gas as we need to. This will take the boot off of the neck of a gas hungry Europe, and allow them to have a long term, dependable supplier. Easy peasy right? Wrong! The Loony Left, who controls many of the Democrats in Congress, have a strangle hold on the permits. Maybe an executive action would help???
• DRILL BABY DRILL! Upset the apple cart in the world petro market. Build the Keystone, drill all over in the Gulf of Mexico, drill on public lands. Nothing, and I mean nothing, would hurt Putin more than to have his cash cow lose some weight.

There you have it. We have seen the enemy, and it is us. We can win this war without firing a shot. Obama needs to take a play from the Gipper's handbook. He beat the Soviets into submission without firing a shot, without losing a life. Our main weapon right now is not the Pershing II Missile system, it is not SDI. Our weapon system is our vast natural resource of oil and gas powered by a free market.

 

So if I was sitting in the Oval Office, I would call my buddy Vladimir up and have an honest man to man conversation. I would tell him this - we have no strategic interest in Kiev nor Crimea. We are not going to intervene. However, if he does not pull out immediately, we will unleash hell in the world petro market. We will pump so much oil, it will bring back gas prices from 2008. Instead of being a major player in our brave new world economy, Russia will become a spectator. As the West gets richer, Russia will only get poorer. We will make it a zero sum game.

 

If you want to play chicken with Kiev Mr. Putin, we are ready for it. However, we are not playing liar's poker. We have the cards to back up our bluff.