Last week, Sci-Tech Today reported, NASA Cuts Ties with Russia Except on Space Station. The reason that we aren’t cutting ties on the space station is that thanks to budget cuts, we have no way to get to and from the space station. It’s a pathetic situation, but then, so is this business of trying to punish Russia for the Ukraine situation by cutting off scientific relations.

This ban involves going to Russia, but there’s more. “They’re also barred from emailing or holding teleconferences with their Russian counterparts.” I really don’t see any point to this. It is a symbolic move that will have no practical effect. And the space station exception just highlights the fact that we are now more dependent upon Russia than they are on us. It makes us look weak, as indeed we are. This is what happens to great countries when they sacrifice advances in new technologies to support the rich owners of old technologies like fossil fuel drilling.

But more than this, NASA’s move is part of a larger American pathology. We are the country that looks askance at other nations and wags a finger. That would be bad enough if we were some lily white country that managed to even come close to its own ideals. We are the most interventionist country in the world. True, most of the time we don’t actually invade. But we stage coups and generally abuse countries until they elect leaders who we (And our corporations!) like. And sometimes, we do invade for no real reason as we did in Iraq.

I’m not in favor of Russia taking over Crimea. But it is not a senseless act perpetrated by a rouge nation. So I’m more than happy to allow the diplomats to work this out. This is not a prelude to World War III. Countries often do things other countries don’t like. And Americans especially don’t like the fact that Russia is powerful enough that we have to treat it with respect. But the situation in Ukraine is very much like the 2008 situation in Georgia. And we ought to treat it like that.

There is no reason to politicize the situation any further. I understand that NASA is and always has been part of the American empire. But starting a little scientific cold war is a really bad idea. It pushes back relations to the pre-Nixon era. And as long as we don’t have a way to get to the space stations, it just makes us look pathetic.