No one is talking about a war- yet. Why isn’t Putin afraid of a nuclear war? Anyone rational knows that barring an attempt to destroy one of the major powers they will not be used. Putin knows there are lots of people in the West who think as you do, so he feels free to do as he pleases, whereas I think we should call his bluff, for example, by declaring the independence of the Republic of Kaliningrad.
Putin knows that his lines of communication are close, ours are to far to do much. But the issue isn’t just Putin.
I don’t think he wants nuclear war. But quite frankly we start acting all macho next door to a superpower and it will happen. There are no good guys in this deal, none. A coup removed a legally elected government, and then a counter coup was launched in an area that didn’t really want to be part of the Ukraine anyway (and was forced to be during the Soviet era).
If Putin gets mad, all he has to do is shut down our supply lines to Afghanistan. Which by the way, runs through Russia. We made the Paks so mad they started joining in on the convoy attacks, and we cut a deal with Russia to allow supplies to our guys.
Start thinking strategy, stop thinking emotionally. Obama and Hagel lost this one, big time, but we have no abilities to project power in and around the Black Sea. It would be like Russia getting mad if we starting doing something they didn’t like in Nebraska. There isn’t any way to get there.