Senator Chuck Grassley says the U.S. should be the world’s “moral leader,” but Grassley says direct U.S. military intervention in Ukraine is not an option.
“Being tied down in Afghanistan, we wouldn’t have the resources to go there in the first place,” Grassley says.
So what are the chances Russia will back down and let the Crimean peninsula remain part of Ukraine?
“Right now I’d say zero, but that’s what I know today,” Grassley says. “Hopefully I’ll be more hopeful tomorrow.”
Targeted sanctions against are the best option for the U.S. at this time, according to Grassley.
“I think the president has started down the right road by sanctions against some people on denying visas if they want to leave the country and most of those people are world-wide travelers,” Grassley says, “and freezing the asserts of wealthy people in Russia that are deposited in other countries ’cause quite frankly they don’t even trust their own government.”
A bill to send foreign aide to Ukraine failed to pass the U.S. Senate late last week. Grassley says he and other Republicans objected because the bill included more money for the International Monetary Fund, not because of the loans for Ukraine.
(Reporting by Darin Swenson, KDEC, Decorah; reporting and editing by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)