Putin will not stop taking just the eastern part of the Ukraine if his intentions are to reconstitute the Soviet Empire. To do that Putin needs all of the Ukraine in order to take Poland, Slavics and other former USSR territories. Krauthammer’s two suggestions to send the Chairman of Joints Chiefs to Kiev to discuss arming Ukrainians and starting up the missile defense will not happen, under obama.
Obama will never take a position of force/ strength against Putin. Putin has already threatened major backlash against the US for any sanctions so to go a step further arming the Ukrainians and starting up the missile defense would be calling Putin’s bluff who will go after our currency and potentially try to collapse our economy..AGAIN! Because of this risk obama thinks he can use his skills acquired from community organizing to negotiate.
That is the underlying problem with all of this. We have a clown in the white house who thinks he can deal with a thug killer in the same manner he dealt with unions and other organizations. You don’t send a peacenik into combat but that is what we have now. We are screwed and our allies in eastern Europe are screwed. Meanwhile Iran, N Korea and China are watching who will now take bold steps be it in weapons development (Iran & N Korea) or seizing more territory (China seizing South China Sea islands).