A failure of American leadership?

[Piglet]

putin felt powerless when the berlin wall fell, now that he is in total absolute power he is trying to get some territory back and he aint taking the proxy war sitting down.

You can say the exact same for Reagan, Cheney, Obama and Trump. The major difference is Russia doesn't have elaborate pretenses regarding "democracy". Power politics is power politics.

All this chatter about this that and the other, history is bunk, what matters is now.  The Duchess hits it on the head without realising it, her inability to understand why this is happening. This is my take.

Nobody understands the difference between right and wrong.  History does not justify war.

Of course Putin is in there, as is the Nazis, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, practically every war you can think of, water finds its own level, it was all a waste of time, effort and money. 

The result was a blood bath, as it is now in the Ukraine.  I remember early in the war, a Ukranian woman lying dead by a rail station waiting for a train to evacuate, her bags spilled everywhere, her food for the trip on the floor.

How can a politician explain that away?  How can that be justified?    Putin will,  lets not imagine a child torn apart. 

Its not right regardless.   Its wrong.