The Soviet conquest of Kabul in that final Golden Year of Progress (1979) took less than 48 hours to complete. Remind us of how that invasion "worked" for the Soviets over the next 9 years.

There, there. No one's going to take your delusions from you if they make you feel better.

American Christians are about to learn what it means to live in a country where being a faithful Christian is going to exact significant costs. It may not be persecution, but it’s still going to hurt, and in ways most Christians scarcely understand.

To come to the point where you have to choose between your conscience and your livelihood because you have good reason to fear the state and activists will destroy you — that’s incredibly dramatic content.

Your delusion was that a country "has" another country if it has a naval base there.

Ah, the martyrdom of having to put two guys in tuxes on top of a cake.

Joey if you want us to go to war so bad are you going to sign up and fight over there? willing to die for them?

The Dreher post was about journalism and bias, and framing the narrative. Calling it bedwetting is just ignoring his points.

Love how Putin is once again in the process of completely humiliating his sad little bittch boy Obama, as he has done so many times over the last year or so.

Nebulous criticism without solutions is all you've got because you know damn well that there's no good direct action for the US to take but why pass up an opportunity to complain about ####?

To come to the point where you have to choose between your conscience and your livelihood because you have good reason to fear the state and activists will destroy you — that’s incredibly dramatic content.

If Putin wants Western Ukraine enough to use force, I'd be in favor of the US/NATO/EU supplying the opposition with hardware and intel. No troops, although a relative handful of "advisors" is inevitable.

Russia has "had" Crimea all along.

Henry II: The Vexin's mine.

Philip II: By what authority?

Henry II: It's got my troops all over it; that makes it mine.

And we all know full well that Obama is doing this on purpose...

And we all know full well that Obama is doing this on purpose

If that's addressed at me, my red line is Western Ukraine -- a European people anxious to be part of Europe. They cannot be allowed to be doomed to Putin/Russian corruption, backwardness, and authoritarianism -- the kind of thing we spent decades fighting against.

There really isn't much to be done about Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. The dilemma comes if Kiev refuses to let them go, which they probably will. In that case, we need to stand firmly behind them -- particularly since we conspired to take their nukes away. What that entails needs further deliberation. It's plainly the case that American servicemen have died for far less important goals; where that observation leaves us also requires further deliberation.

The Dreher post was about journalism and bias, and framing the narrative. Calling it bedwetting is just ignoring his points.

The story comes in at about 2,200 words — long for a newspaper feature. It profiles a gay male married couple and a lesbian married couple, and is filled with rich details about how their lives have changed since SSM became legal. That’s good journalism. I have no objection there. But the reporter makes only a half-hearted glance towards the lives of SSM opponents

I did a word count of the piece. How many words are dedicated to neutral background material? About 400.

How many words are dedicated to exploring the lives and opinions of SSM opponents in Minnesota? About 300.

How many words are dedicated to exploring the lives and opinions of SSM supporters? About 1,500.

This is bias. This is bad journalism.

Joey will you sign up to fight and die for your country?

For what it's worth I agree with you about Western Ukraine, there's no way Putin can be allowed to invade and subjugate a people that obviously want nothing to do with him. If that becomes the case then the US needs to get NATO moving to act in their defense (I know Ukraine isn't actually covered by the NATO treaty but this kind of stuff clearly falls under what the treaty was signed for in the first place and they should be willing to act)

James F. Jeffrey was Mr. Bush’s deputy national security adviser in August 2008, the first to inform him that Russian troops were moving into Georgia in response to what the Kremlin called Georgian aggression against South Ossetia. As it happened, the clash also took place at Olympic time; Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin were both in Beijing for the Summer Games.

Mr. Bush confronted Mr. Putin to no avail, then ordered American ships to the region and provided a military transport to return home Georgian troops on duty in Iraq. He sent humanitarian aid on a military aircraft, assuming that Russia would be loath to attack the capital of Tbilisi with American military personnel present. Mr. Bush also suspended a pending civilian nuclear agreement, and NATO suspended military contacts.

“We did a lot but in the end there was not that much that you could do,” Mr. Jeffrey recalled.

What would it take for people prejudiced against Obama in analogous ways to admit that they were wrong?

For much of his time in office, President Obama has been accused by a mix of conservative hawks and liberal interventionists of overseeing a dangerous retreat from the world at a time when American influence is needed most.

The once-hopeful Arab Spring has staggered into civil war and military coup. China is stepping up territorial claims in the waters off East Asia. Longtime allies in Europe and in the Persian Gulf are worried by the inconsistency of a president who came to office promising the end of the United States’ post-Sept. 11 wars.

Now Ukraine has emerged as a test of Obama’s argument that, far from weakening American power, he has enhanced it through smarter diplomacy, stronger alliances and a realism untainted by the ideology that guided his predecessor. It will be a hard argument for him to make, analysts say.
. . .
Rarely has a threat from a U.S. president been dismissed as quickly — and comprehensively — as Obama’s warning Friday night to Russian President Vladi mir Putin. The former community organizer and the former Cold Warrior share the barest of common interests, and their relationship has been defined far more by the vastly different ways they see everything from gay rights to history’s legacy.

Allowing Russia a pass on Crimea, puts the Baltics and all unwilling subjects of the Soviet & Russian empires at risk.

Wrong about what? He hasn't done anything special internationally.

President Obama has been accused by a mix of conservative hawks and liberal interventionists of overseeing a dangerous retreat from the world at a time when American influence is needed most.

Rarely has a threat from a U.S. president been dismissed as quickly — and comprehensively — as Obama’s warning Friday night to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And I'm still waiting to hear from Joey or SugarBear

The narrative that the world fell apart because of a power vacuum left by the electoral defeat of John McCain exists entirely in the minds of its tellers.

When was the last time the Middle East was stable? The 16th century? The 9th?

And I'm still waiting to hear from Joey or SugarBear how that Soviet conquest of Kabul in 1979 "worked" after the first 48 hours of Brezhnev's Mission Accomplished, and what exactly they would do in Obama's place today. Boycott? Blockade? Unilateral or multi-lateral? Call up the reserves to show Putin we're serious?

The Middle East and Russia's so-called near abroad have been anything but "stable" since January 20, 2009

What I would do in Obama's place is more vocally espouse and defend American and Western interests. We have a national interest in the Europeanization and non-Russification of (at least) Western Ukraine. The United States. Not the "international community" or "Europe" -- the United States. Has Obama even said so? We fought the Cold War so areas like Western Ukraine would be free of Soviet/Russian control.

Well, for starters I would begin by attending my national security council meetings and pretending like I actually cared about what the heck is going on, instead of inviting another bunch of celebrities to the White House, or playing another 18 holes of golf, or playing another pickup basketball game with Arne Duncan and the gang, which are what this assclown seems to care about more than anything else.

The newly appointed head of Ukraine's navy has sworn allegiance to the Crimea region, in the presence of its unrecognised pro-Russian leader.

Rear Admiral Denys Berezovsky was only made head of the navy on Saturday, as the government in Kiev reacted to the threat of Russian invasion.

Ukraine's interim leaders have put him under investigation for treason.

Well, for starters I would begin by attending my national security council meetings and pretending like I actually cared about what the heck is going on, instead of inviting another bunch of celebrities to the White House, or playing another 18 holes of golf, or playing another pickup basketball game with Arne Duncan and the gang, which are what this assclown seems to care about more than anything else.

What the hell relevance does a Soviet adventure outside the typical Russian sphere of influence have to the Crimea and Ukraine? None.

The Secretary [in a meeting with Ukrainian government] will reaffirm the United States’ strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future, without outside interference or provocation.

The threat of Western sanctions against Russia stands to dry up demand for the country’s assets and deepen a selloff in the ruble after President Vladimir Putin’s military forces took over parts of neighboring Ukraine.
. . .
The looming conflict, which follows deadly Ukrainian protests that ousted a Putin ally from the presidency, was already driving down Russian asset prices last week even before he made his military intentions clearer over the past couple days. The ruble slid 0.6 percent last week to 42.0474 against Bank Rossii’s target basket of dollars and euros, extending its rout this year to 8.5 percent. Russia’s Micex (INDEXCF) stock index declined 2.9 percent, the biggest weekly drop in eight months.

“Russia is the most vulnerable, obviously besides Ukraine,” Tim Ash, chief emerging markets economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd. in London, said by phone yesterday. The ruble will weaken “as capital flight will increase significantly,” he said.

The ruble’s 8.4 percent slide against the dollar this year is the biggest decline among the 31 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg after the Argentine peso.