Sanctions on Russia? Just "hit 'em where they ain't"

Non-US readers please grin and bear it a bit; this post will have a baseball reference. It will pass quickly, I promise. The wise advice from the baseball player quoted, however, also might be valid for cricket. Let me know. To clarify: I know barely more than nothing about baseball, and even less about cricket. Many years ago, some friends at the British High Commission in Pakistan tried to teach me how to play cricket, but soon gave up; I was terrified of the bowler, what we would call the pitcher, who did an over-the-top scary wind-up and then fired a ball very fast and directly at me. The whole thing proved unnerving. No doubt that my tail-between-the-legs reaction to cricket probably disqualifies me under Aussie immigration rules from ever being allowed to visit Australia--number one on my bucket list.

William H. "Wee Willie" Keeler (1872-1923) was one of baseball's great players, and something of a philosopher whose advice could be useful when dealing with the Putin-Lavrov drive to make Russia number one with a bullet. Keeler ended his career in 1910, with one of the highest overall batting averages in baseball history (.341) and, I believe, still the highest single season average, .385 for the 1898 baseball season. When asked by a reporter how he amassed such a record of hits, he famously said, "Keep your eye clear, and hit 'em where they ain't." In other words, put the ball where the fielders are not. This advice transcends sport; it is applicable for developing business, military, and diplomatic strategies. It also happens to provide a useful framework for dealing with Putin's Russia.

Our embarrassment of a President came on the tube today--when isn't he?-- trying to sound and act presidential--no Oscar. He presented the typical mishmash, grab-bag of sanctions that get developed by bleary-eyed bureaucrats in long inter-agency meetings over cold coffee and stale cookies late at night. I have been in countless get-togethers of the sort that produce these things. The result is inevitably a camel, you know, a horse designed by a committee. The sanctions are supposed to be targeted, smart, appropriate--come up with your own tired cliche--and are meant to show a steely resolve, but a flexible steely resolve, that inflicts pain without being too painful, and doesn't hurt anybody too much and who is too important and who might get angry and do something nasty back at us. In other words, it's nonsense that often does less than nothing, and many times makes you look weak and silly in the eyes of your opponent. Might as well quietly sacrifice a goat or two to Moloch and pray that he eat you last. His eye definitely was not clear, and he didn't hit "them" anywhere.

Forget sanctions. I previously wrote what we need to do in the long-run is to avoid creating the environment that allows situations such as the one we now see in Ukraine from arising. Instead of announcing sanctions that won't work, we should do something for ourselves that will immunize us from the lawless behavior of petty tyrants.

Frack. Yes, frack.

Get US oil and gas production going full scale. The US government should announce an end to restrictions on fracking on federal lands, and an end to the absurd restrictions on maritime drilling.  We should also announce our intention to become Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas. Just the announcement will drop the price of oil and gas and shave tens of billions off the oil- and gas-dependent Russian economy and hit the Russian government budget. It will, as I have written repeatedly, kick off a new wave of prosperity in the USA.


As long as we continue with self-destructive policies such as limiting our ability to achieve energy independence, we will limit our ability to respond to actions of petty tyrants.

"Hit' em where they ain't."