Local Editor
A new poll suggests Americans have very little appetite for any real involvement in the crisis in Ukraine and any move against Russia.
Only 29 percent of Americans would like for the Obama administration to take a “firm stand” against Russia’s incursion into its neighbor, according to the Pew Research Center poll, while nearly twice as many — 56 percent — prefer the United States not to get too involved in Ukraine.
Another 15 percent did not have an opinion.
The poll reflects a war-weary American public that is still very reticent to get involved in international conflicts. The American people were similarly opposed to military intervention in Syria last year, despite President Barack Obama calling for the use of force and seeking congressional approval for action.
Few are talking in terms of military intervention in Ukraine right now.
Opposition to getting involved in Ukraine is bipartisan, with at least 50 percent of Democrats, Republicans and independents all expressing opposition to an active role in the crisis there.
The poll follows on a Washington Post-ABC News poll from earlier Tuesday that showed a majority of Americans support sanctions against Russia. But just 28 percent support sanctions “strongly.”
The US announced that the guided-missile destroyer, the USS Truxtun , was heading to the Black Sea area, in a deployment planned before the Ukraine crisis began.
The Pentagon said it had sent six F-15 fighter jets to Lithuania to bolster patrols over the Baltic states. According to reports in Poland, the US was also sending a squadron of F-16 fighter jets there for a training exercise.
Ukraine has been gripped by unrest since November 2013, when then president Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.
On February 23, amid rising violence in Ukraine, the parliament ousted Yanukovych and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature’s speaker, as interim president. Russia has given sanctuary to Yanukovych.
Ukraine’s Krimea region has announced early voting to decide on annexing to Russia. US and other Western states warns Russia against the annexation
– See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1575228#sthash.sXLUuzBz.dpuf
