Group of Eight (G8)

Meet the Other 'Group of Eight'

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• published: 18 Mar 2014
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Most of us have heard of the Group of Eight. That's the group of U.S. Senators who pushed immigration reform through their chamber last year. However, another Senate "Group of Eight" has formed. This new bipartisan clan visited Ukraine just before Sunday's referendum, in which the people of the Crimean region voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. By most press accounts, the people in Crimea were jubilant about joining Russia. Many of them do not recognize the "interim" government that the West helped install in Ukraine. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain—who took part in the immigration Group of Eight—is part of this new Group of Eight as well. McCain and company traveled to Ukraine to showcase their backing of the newly-installed interim government in Kiev. These Senators also protested Russia's decision to send troops to Crimea; they don't buy Russian President Vladimir Putin's explanation that the troops were sent to simply protect the Crimean peninsula's ethnic-Russian majority. However, Putin even claimed in uncensored speeches that Russian troops were invited to the Crimea. Lengthy excerpts of his remarks were published in the current edition of American Free Press, a national newsweekly in Washington. Meanwhile, the D.C. journal The Hill noted: "[The] bipartisan group of eight senators traveling through Ukraine blasted the Russian leader, and called Sunday's election on whether Crimea should join Russia 'rigged and illegitimate'" But the U.S.—which is no stranger to rigged elections itself—may up the ante on the military level as well. The Hill added: "Some of the senators called for the U.S. to provide military equipment to Ukrainian troops, and the group vowed [to enact] crippling economic sanctions against Russia until the nation pulled back." Besides McCain, the delegation in Ukraine consisted of Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Hoeven of North Dakota, and Jeff Flake of Arizona; and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Upon their return, four of the senators appeared on yesterday's talk shows to increase the sense of urgency surrounding a bill calling for sanctions against Russia. Just such a bill passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. But that bill became entangled in a separate matter involving changes to the International Monetary Fund. Sen. Hoeven said the Senate should set aside the IMF issue and move ahead on other parts of the sanctions bill. Meanwhile, on CNN's "State of the Union," McCain called economic sanctions "a very important step." McCain also called Russia "a gas station masquerading as a country," while adding: "It's a nation that's really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy. And so economic sanctions are important." Sen. Durbin, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," went so far as to say that Putin's recent military actions in Ukraine represented, "The single most serious act of aggression since the Cold War." Sen. Flake, who appeared with Durbin, believes Russia has long had designs on Crimea. However, there's evidence that NATO and the European Union have their own designs to gobble up more Eastern European nations and absorb former Soviet satellites such as Ukraine. Flake remarked: "We're going to move forward with sanctions; not just us, but our European allies as well." Therefore, sanctions may simply be a way for the U.S. and its allies to quietly bring Ukraine under Western control—under the guise of freeing it from Russian control. Then we must ask that if Ukraine cannot be totally independent, which master would serve it best—the West or Russia? And do we really want to risk another war to find out? #DC http://NextNewsNetwork.com | Next News Network's World News Program airs daily at 6pm and 11pm Eastern on Comcast, DirecTV and Over-the-Air and Online at http://.com/.html World News is available to 6 million viewers from South Beach to Sebastian, Florida and to 2 million viewers in Boston, Massachusetts via WHDN. broadcasts on RF channel 44 (virtual channel 9) from Palm City and is carried on cable TV channels 44 (SD) and 1044 (HD) by AT&T;, on cable channels 17 (SD) and 438 (HD) in West Palm Beach by Comcast, on satellite channel 44 (SD) in West Palm Beach by DIRECTV, and on WHDN-Boston which broadcasts on RF channel 38 (virtual channel 6) from the Government Center district in downtown Boston. More about : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Like us on Facebook: http://Facebook.com/NextNewsNet Follow us on Twitter: http://Twitter.com/NextNewsNet Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=NextNewsNetwork