* The only problem, and it’s hardly inconsequential, with taking issue with that punk Vlad Putin over Crimea, is “self determination,”a tenet the West has always venerated. It was good for the American colonies and Kosovo and probably Catalonia. At its core–Russian security forces-overseen referendum and authoritarian KGBer notwithstanding–self-determination, however idealized, is what the Russian-rooted and -speaking majority of Crimea want. And, ironically, may deserve.
* You can call it weak, or inconsistent or even incoherent, but the foreign policy of President Barack Obama is fundamentally flawed because it is inevitably dependent on an enlightened, cooperative world.