Ukraine -- McCain -- A Sanctions Campaign

Russia recently sanctioned Senator John McCain. It was in response to sanctions against Russians previously announced by the U.S.

What I don't understand is why Putin waited so long to do it. McCain's been making snarky comments about Putin for years. He once accused Putin's Kremlin of instituting a "state-run kind of Mussolini style government."

Now McCain has decided to take under his wing the new leaders that have assumed control in Kiev. He wants to be sure they don't fall under the influence of that nasty, fascist Kremlin.

In December McCain and his protégé Chris Murphy, a junior senator from Connecticut, showed up at Maidan to address a cheering crowd. They pledged their support for holding fascist Putin at bay.

I guess they didn't notice the Nazi symbols worn by the Right Sector troopers in the crowd. I think they're the ones who were cheering the loudest. Maybe McCain thought those wearing the SS armbands were fans of the American rock group KISS.

The Maidan leaders asked for U.S. sanctions. McCain offered to help them. He's been quite good at mentoring foreign leaders seeking distance from Putin's iron fist. In 2008 it was Saakashvili. Now it's Yatsenyuk and others in Ukraine. I wonder if they know what happened to Saakashvili. The last I heard he was hiding out in the United States amidst calls for his arrest back in Georgia.

I was intrigued by McCain's idea of sanctions. These days talk of sanctions is all over the news. America sanctioning Russia, Russia sanctioning America. Sanctions seem to be really popular.

But then I came across a study that questions their effectiveness. It was conducted by the Institute for International Economics. The findings show the success rate has been in steep decline since 1970. By 1990 it was just 13 percent. And based on the cited rate of decline, I figure it's now down to 2.5 percent. That makes me wonder why everyone's so excited over sanctions.

The White House claims its sanctions have had a "significant impact" on Russia. But the New York Times says it's "more psychological than tangible."

From what I can see, the principal psychological outcome has been to divert attention away from finding practical solutions to Ukraine's tragic situation. I'm assuming that everyone wants a solution. But maybe I'm wrong.

Lamentably, Obama seems stuck on McCain's idea of sanctions. But now that they're beginning to look like a bad idea, I have a suggestion.

Obama should redirect his sanctions initiative. I say sanction McCain and Murphy. Pull their passports and freeze their assets, and keep them out of the Ukrainian crisis.

Granted, even this new sanction protocol may only realize a 2.5 percent chance of success. But, hey, isn't it worth a shot?

Isn't satirizing McCain fun?

More seriously though, events have brought the principal countries to the brink of armed conflict. It's time to stop the nonsense, constrain the agitators like McCain, and allow cooler heads to devise a peaceful solution that will serve Ukraine's diverse interests.