It’s called intimidation .. and that’s how Putin operates.
While Putin may have assumed America would not interfere (because Obama appears cowardly to him), he forgot to separate Obama from the NATO Alliance agreement with our military.
I believe Putin mis-calculated our military’s lack of will; assuming we would not honor our commitment because of our CIC’s fear of Putin. No one should ever mis-calculate that.
...and NATO has such a sterling history of recent times, has it?
I suggest you have a good look at what they left behind in Libya.
” he forgot to separate Obama from the NATO Alliance agreement with our military.”
DO you believe that the US military is operating outside Obamas orders?