Obama has no idea what to do as Putin seizes Crimea

I think conservatives need to take a breath when it comes to the lionization of Vladimir Putin. If your objective is to show how hapless Barack Obama is by contrasting him with his geopolitical adversary, then yeah, Putin is clearly 12 steps ahead of Obama and quick to seize on the opportunities provided by Obama's frequent strategic mistakes and poor instincts.

But let's not lose sight of this: Putin is a perpetrator of global mayhem. However much we enjoy demonstrating Obama's weakness for partisan purposes, the fact remains that it's not in the interests of the United States (or of free nations anywhere) if Putin keeps using Russia's military muscle to expand its influence as he is doing right now in Ukraine. You can respect your adversary, but can we give it a rest with the Putin-now-that-guy's-a-president-we-should-have-him-here crap? A better perspective on Putin comes from Congressman Mike Rogers, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and delved into some actual steps the U.S. could be taking to counter Russia's aggression:

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Rogers clearly doesn't think it would do much good at this point to send military assets to the Crimean Sea - unless, of course, we're prepared to actually use them. But his historical perspective is key here. As far back as 2009, Obama signaled his intention to bow to Putin's strategic priorities when he welched on the Bush Administration's commitment to install missile defense shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. The only strategic rationale for that decision was that Putin didn't want it, and Obama thought making a concession to Putin would improve our relations with the Russians. (And of course, liberals hate missile defenses and have since the Reagan Administration, always failing to understand their strategic value to the United States.) More recently, Obama's total capitulation in Syria after talking big about military intervention demonstrated to Putin that Obama's red lines don't mean a thing, and that once Obama has talked himself into a corner he is not prepared to fight his way out of, he will make further concessions in exchange for a bailout on Russia's terms. Putin's game here is clearly to re-establish as much of the old Soviet empire as he can, and he considers Ukraine particularly important because it borders four of America's NATO allies, and has a population that has been indicating a strong desire to tilt toward the West in its economic dealings. If a Putin puppet like Viktor Yanukovych can't keep this sentiment under his thumb, no problem. Putin will do it himself. The Wall Street Journal explains why no one should believe the seizure of Crimea is the end here:

By Saturday, it was clear that a Russian-held Crimea is only stage one. The upper house of parliament in Moscow unanimously approved the declaration of war, and thousands of pro-Russian demonstrators turned out in the industrial cities of Kharkiv and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to demand Moscow's protection. As in Crimea on Thursday, armed men stormed local government buildings and replaced the Ukrainian flag with Russia's. The eastern regions of Ukraine are Russian speaking but they voted handily for Ukrainian independence in 1991. No serious separatist movement existed there before this weekend. The local business tycoons, who run politics there, had dropped their support for Mr. Yanukovych and backed the new national government. But Kiev has limited control over military units and police, making the east a tempting target for Mr. Putin to install his own men in power. Ukraine borders four of America's NATO allies, who are watching closely how the U.S. and the rest of Europe respond. The U.S. has for more than two decades championed Ukraine's independence as crucial to European security. In exchange for Kiev's difficult decision in 1994 to hand over its nuclear weapons to Russia, the U.S., along with Britain and Moscow, promised to assure Ukraine's territorial integrity in the so-called Budapest Memorandum. Russia is now in breach of this agreement.

At this point, economic retribution is our strongest play. The Russians need the markets of the West to bankrule the system of crony capitalism that helps keep Putin in power. If we cut off their access to oil and gas markets, it is the one thing that will create a serious problem for Putin. But we might have never gotten to this point if Putin had any fear whatsoever of his U.S. counterparts. Obama and Hillary Clinton signaled right away in 2009 that Putin had no reason to feel any such fear. Obama is far too busy trying to socialize America to pay attention to exercise any sort of U.S. strategic muscle abroad. Indeed, he ran in part on the notion that America was spending too much time and resources on matters abroad, and he wanted to pull back on that sort of thing. Nice job, champ. Be careful what you wish for.