After a stroll through the Quad and a small amount of eavesdropping, you hear exactly what’s been on peoples’ minds lately.
Nationally, the hot stories are ISIS’s continuing jihad across Syria and Iraq, brought back into the spotlight by the murder of American journalist Steven Sotloff, and the theft of dozens of private celebrity photos, known on the Internet as “The Fappening.”
More locally, the buzz has been all about the Tigers’ fourth-quarter comeback under the direction of the Mad Hatter, coach Les Miles.
What seems to be missing from the conversation is discourse concerning the quickly escalating crisis in Ukraine. Students just have not been keeping up with it.
This crisis has the potential to escalate into a full-scale war between two industrialized powers and needs far more attention than it is
getting.
In the past weeks, the conflict has grown from the Ukrainian military pursuing pro-Russian rebels in their eastern strongholds to a point where reports suggest that Russia is directly intervening.
On Monday, officials said that Ukrainian troops had to abandon an airport in Luhansk after engaging with Russian tanks inside Ukraine. A senior official told Agence France-Presse it was Russia’s intent to “create a land corridor to Crimea,” which the Russian Federation illegally annexed in March.
With the rebels’ capture of Novoazovsk, a border town on the Black Sea, this theory seems increasingly likely.
In an attempt to gauge University students’ knowledge and interest in the conflict, I asked several students in the Quad what their thoughts were on the subject. What I learned is that people on their lunch break greet questions on foreign affairs with as much joy as someone singled out for damnation by Brother Jed in Free Speech Plaza.
After talking with a few students who have not been keeping up with the story because of heavy course loads, busy first-week schedules and the like, I came across Landon Troxclair, a mechanical engineering freshman. He said that he’s been somewhat keeping up with the crisis.
When asked what he thought of what’s going on, he said “They’re trying to rebuild the Soviet Empire,” in reference to Russia’s seizure of Crimea and backing of the Ukrainian separatists.
However, when asked if he thought the U.S. should intervene, Troxclair was hesitant to take a more bellicose stance on the issue. He cited existing American actions against ISIS as a higher priority — which is unsurprising, considering that the terror group is now responsible for ravaging a country we spent years destroying and rebuilding and executing two American journalists.
The problem is, while ISIS is a jihadist organization posing as a nation-state that we could bomb into the Stone Age if we so chose, Russia is a nuclear-armed state and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It has been violating the sovereignty of a state of which it pledged to maintain the territorial integrity for most of this year.
In fact, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security Council, Col. Andriy Lysenko, said they are preparing to fight a war that could cost “tens of thousands of lives.” NATO estimates that at least 1,000 Russian troops have crossed the border in support of the rebels, with an additional 20,000 in Russia ready to go at any time.
As if it were not bad enough, Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey called the coming conflict Ukraine’s “Great Patriotic War,” using the Russian name for the Second World War. Rhetoric aside, it seems that Ukrainian leadership is preparing for a high-casualty war with the Russian Federation, which seems more than willing to escalate.
As far as dire situations go, the seemingly imminent Russo-Ukrainian conflict takes the cake. Students need to take note of what is happening; the U.S. may have no choice but to intervene before long.
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old political science, history and international studies senior from Zachary, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @JRyanMcGehee.