“And of course no voter fraud.”
Probably less than the average Chicago election. Seriously, with no sarc.
Someone explain how this is a threat to the US. Someone explain how this is less legal or justified than Hawaii or Alaska statehood, or the votes Puerto Rico has had, or the entire Manifest Destiny for that matter. Someone explain Obama’s moral authority to not recognize this region’s act of self-determination.
Perhaps you forgot the /sarc tag? This has absolutely nothing to do with Russia, Ukraine and Crimea with respect to political allegiances or the "will of the people" TM.
What it's really about is to further mask & distort the cause of US/NATO encroachment around Russia. And that, my FRiend, is in order to eventually obtain Russian resources.
Now, whether that objective is achieved via sanctions, with the hope of economic collapse, or via increased military engagements - initially on the periphery - is probably of no regard to the Neos driving US policy.
The greatest outlier is to get close enough so that a 1st strike could be rendered in 30-60 seconds. Then, our defensive ABM shield could handle any stragglers that managed to be launched.
The way to prove the above thesis is true is to observe that "we" aren't going to leave this issue alone. Just wait - it will now be constantly in the news over the coming years as Iraq/Afg drop out of the picture. An incursion here, a build up there - we're not giving up.
And why not? Because the tight gas/oil plays in N America are a bust. The only way to access conventional fossil fuels is to get Russia's. We really have no choice if we want to see the US dollar remain as the reserve currency.
It might seem odd, but the US is now in a similar situation as Japan in 1940. We need to go after new sources if we are to survive. And just like Japan, all those "special" EOs and security measures will be brought to good use to shut-down all criticism as we bring this fight home.