Obama backed the overthrow of democratically elected government in Ukraine BY A MILITARY JUNTA!! Do people not know that? Russia had a warm water port and moved to seal off any attempt to cut them off from their port! Why do we not honor ELECTIONS?? Where people actually VOTE for the government they actually want. WE DID THIS WITH EGYPT!!also. Who the hell are we to militarily overthrow two duly and legally elected government WITH MILITARY FORCE? We don’t need to be telling Putin what to do, that is for damned sure.
Yeah but Stalin assigned the Crimea administratively to the Ukraine to which it was adjacent. So we went along and tried to move Ukraine (and "Ukraine's" warm water ports) into NATO separating Russia from the same. I am sure someone thought it was a really clever move - except that a.) the Crimea has belonged to Russia since Catherine the Great, and this sort of supersophisticated scam might work in New York City, but was going to piss the Russians off royally; b.) Russia is a world class nuclear power, and never ceased to be even with the transition from Gorby to Yeltsin; c.) we hardly have freedom of movement into, on and out of the Black Sea (it's a Russian lake); and d.) We are kind of stretched out and bogged down what with ISIS in the middle east, North Africa, and Europe, and China in the South China Sea; d.) Our geniuses in State and Defense showed Putin just how stupid and clueless they were; and e.) Trying out this clever pawn move against the back row of chess pieces just caused Putin to laugh his head off, as it did those Americans who got the stupidity and joined him in laughing at the biggest joke of the century.
What were we supposed to do - cry at this kind of nuclear brinksmanship by guys who had declared nuclear weapons obsolete? "If you use one of your tactical nukes against our carrier in the Black Sea trying to defend the local freedom fighters in what you claim to be your port, we will.... well, we...., well, I.., I..., I..... Well world opinion will turn against you and the UN will sanction you - you will abstain from exercising your veto because of your obvious conflict of interest.
Some things are just so dumb you don't do them. But we tried it. There are some situations that there is no way out of except not to get into it in the first place.