Oh, by the way, Russian troops are storming into Ukraine again

Staying on the theme of agreements with other countries that mean nothing, remember that cease-fire back in September that was supposed to take care of hostilities in Ukraine between the Russians and the Ukranian resistance? Yeeeaaaahhh . . . about that. Not only are the Russian invaders back in full force, it appears that the cease-fire did little more than give them the chance to catch their breath and prepare for the next incursion:

NATO Commanding General Philip Breedlove, a rare Western leader who speaks frankly about Moscow, reported Wednesday that Russian forces have again crossed the border into southeast Ukraine. The invaders include tanks, artillery and soldiers. This makes a mockery of September's Minsk cease-fire accord between the insurgents backed by Mr. Putin and the Kiev government. Washington and the EU had hoped the truce would end this war, but as usual it was merely a pause that refreshes Russian appetites. The next steps aren't hard to imagine. Moscow wants a land bridge from Russia proper to the Crimean peninsula that it annexed in March. "It is our first guess that these forces will go in to make this a more contiguous, more whole and capable pocket of land, to then hold on to it long-term," said Gen. Breedlove. That's surely right, as the insurgents have been slowly taking ground from the first days of the cease-fire.

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The rebels also control a patchwork territory in the eastern Donbas region, and they'd like to retake the Donetsk airport that remains in Kiev's hands. Alexander Zakharchenko, who claimed the "presidency" of the Donetsk breakaway republic in sham elections Nov. 2, is promising an offensive against Mariupol, located on the main road to Crimea. He's a Moscow puppet. The Kremlin last week rebuffed pleas from the White House and Brussels and endorsed the rebel election. This vote was organized in haste, recognized by no free state and explicitly violated the Minsk accord. That "peace plan" had envisioned a devolution of power from Kiev, followed by legitimate local elections and international monitors to enforce the deal. So much for that.

Has Western condemnation and/or nominal support of the real Ukranian government made even the slightest difference here? I can't find a single example of how it has. Obama refused to provide Ukraine with arms of any kind. The supposed economic sanctions against the Russians have been a joke. Any negotiated resolution has turned out to be a mere delay - and a slight one at that - in the Russians' inevitable pursuit of the conquest they've had in mind all along. Liberals ask: Do you conservatives really want to go to war with Russia over this? The answer is obviously not, but what really matters here is not so much what we want, but rather what the Russians must understand is our readiness and willingness to say enough, and to mean it, and to back that up. What stops Russia from invading and conquering any country it wants if it's understood that under no circumstances will the United States stand up to them? If the U.S. won't stop them, and the EU won't stop them, and NATO won't stop them, why should they stop? Russia doesn't recognize moral lines of restraint. Russia does whatever it can that it perceives to be in its own interests. If Putin will pay no real price for invading Ukraine, Putin will invade Ukraine. So when happens when Putin decides he wants to take the Czech Republic? Or Poland? Do you think for a minute that liberals won't ask the exact same question? Do you conservatives really want to go to war with Russia over this? The Russians could be on the outskirts of London and the left would still be asking that question. Of course, they will mock and ridicule the idea that it would ever come to that, just as they mocked Sarah Palin when she predicted that Putin would invade Ukraine. Because . . . ah, come on! Putin is not restrained by anything now, except the limits of Putin's own agenda. Good luck counting on that.