THE TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE

The Territorial Imperative is the title of a book by Robert Ardrey that shows how male animals, especially the alphas, are compelled to establish and defend, or even extend, their territory. Something along these lines appears to be stirring in the White House when it comes to places like Canada, Greenland, Panama, and Gaza. 

Of these, Canada is most compelling, provided of course that the Canadians are amenable to it. But offering to make the 51st state out of a territory so large is woefully inadequate. If we were to consider this seriously it should be on the basis of statehood for each Canadian province. That would yield ten new states (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec) along with three territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon). 

This would make the combined country the largest territory in the world, and provide a continuous line in the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland, another potential territory. Given that most Canadians live along the border with the USA in a narrow continuous strip, the whole process could be seamless. However this is not something that is going to come about unless the Canadians themselves want it, and pressure will only increase resistance. If anything the initiative for union should come from Canada, pursuant to advantages that might accrue by combining with the USA. 

On the other hand there is no particular reason why friendly countries cannot maintain independent, but closer relations. It would behoove us and our allies to move closer together, allowing more free movement and trade, while reducing, not increasing barriers. Unfortunately at the moment we appear to be headed in the latter direction. While things are moving well in Washington now, this is one area where reservations are in order. We share a common western civilization that should be fortified for our mutual long-term interests. 

The map of the world is not static, and changes virtually every year. It is sometimes due to the territorial imperative, often via war. One of the biggest problems arising with it is that extreme nationalists in every country think that their country should be at the maximum extent it was in the past, which obviously leads to conflicting overlapping visions of what borders should be, as well as chronic instability, if taken seriously.  But empires wax and wane, so that if every country sought to replicate their height of power and territory there would be endless conflict. 

This is reflected in the Russia-Ukraine war. Putin would like to restore the Russian empire to its greatest extent, and Ukraine is a historic and essential part of it. A case could be made that a common history makes this obvious, except for one thing: the Ukrainians clearly do not want it. Whatever was common in the past is in the past. Divergence has given contemporary Ukrainians a keen sense of their own identity and that cannot be undone. 

Such territorial claims can also be conflicting as we see in  the Middle East. But turning Gaza into a beach resort while displacing the native population is no solution. It is wrong to consider “Arabs” as interchangeable so that they can easily be resettled. For the Palestinians are not Arabs but consist largely of the indigenous population that was conquered by Arabs. There are people there whose origins go back to the Philistines, whose displacement would be morally indefensible. But it is true that a Palestinian state consisting of Gaza and the West Bank separated by Israel is simply not viable. Gaza should be an independent city-state initially under international supervision and the Palestinian state proper should be confined to the west bank.  

It is one thing to engage in much-needed disruption to reform the government of the USA, and something else to tamper with a far more complex world order. For the latter will come with unanticipated consequences and events beyond anyone’s control. Let the macho instincts be confined to domestic affairs. 

 

ALLIES ARE NOT ADVERSARIES

Although Trump is right on most issues and reflects majority opinion so thoroughly that the Harris campaign has flip-flopped to mimic these positions,  there is one glaring exception when it comes to foreign policy. Treating allies the same as adversaries is counterproductive and just plain wrong. We share a common civilization with Europe and ought to be moving closer rather than further apart. 

While some still lag on military expenditures, it is important to note that the Europeans contributed troops to Afghanistan throughout the conflict and suffered significant casualties. Despite that, they weren’t even informed in advance of our disastrous withdrawal. We have done most of the heavy lifting beginning with World War II, but it is for that very reason that we should continue to honor the sacrifices our predecessors made to give us the world we have today. 

It is one thing to place tariffs on China, and something else to do so on our allies. We need to look at the big picture. If you combined the entire population of the USA and Europe, we would still be less than the population of China or India. That suggests a serious long-term competitive disadvantage on our part as well as the Europeans. It is in our best interests to have a common policy with Europe, and rather than diminishing them we ought to be working towards closer ties and synchronization. That will enable the West to remain competitive and continue to lead in the long-term. 

Our adversaries are far better at long-term geopolitical thinking than we are. It is time we broadened our approach to facilitate our allied common interests. A renewed, more comprehensive Atlantic Alliance that facilitates the movement of goods and people through mutual preferences would enrich our societies. Our economies are already seriously integrated. It is surprising to note how many household brands we think of as American are actually European in origin, and vice versa. Thus, this could come about with minimum disruption. 

I hope that Trump’s criticisms directed at Europe are nothing more than tactical bluster. Overall and for the benefit of posterity across the Atlantic it is time to begin discussing closer ties, not deeper division.  

WINDS OF WAR

Many, if not most people realize that we are now at war with Iran, except for Joe Biden, who instead thinks we are at war with Russia, even though no one declared it. Worse, this administration continues to believe that they can still deal with the mullah’s regime, after replenishing them with funds and getting nothing in return except contempt and even worse behavior. But the reality is while we may think otherwise, or don’t want to become involved in a wider war, Iran is already at war with us, whether we like it or not. They have been for some time, and already have the blood of hundreds if not thousands of Americans, Frenchmen, Arabs, and others going back to the Beirut bombing. There have already been numerous attacks on our troops by all of their proxies, who have clearly been organized by Tehran. Do they not understand that the mullahs actually mean what they say; to drive the “Great Satan” out of the region, and exterminate the Jews? What more will it take?

Retaliating on the proxies accomplishes little because they are simply puppets who would collapse without Iranian support. Our response now should instead be directed at the mullahs, with the targeted aim of taking them out, which would bring joy to a people living under repression over so many years. That is where “regime change” is truly needed, and where we have a case for it, not with the Russians. 

Unfortunately we could not possibly be in a worse position than we are now with this weak and bumbling administration, which itself has enabled all the problems we now face around the world. But as disastrous as these developments have been they have become a far worse harbingers of world spinning out of control and into a major war. 

Ominously, ill-conceived policies have brought us to a situation disturbingly similar to the outbreak of World War II. Germany and Japan had nothing in common apart from an appetite for expansion and a shared aversion to the one power standing in their path to world domination- the USA. Now we find the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians coalescing in an alliance of convenience. The easiest pillar to remove is Iran, thereby eliminating a menace without triggering the others. 

Our overall strategy should have been focused on containing the Iranians, and further undermining them, given their lack of legitimacy with their own people. Yet when the people rose up we provided no help or encouragement that might have dramatically altered the strategic situation in the region. Instead they pursued an idiotic, ill-conceived strategy of containing not Iran, but Russia. The wisest overall strategy for the US and its allies would have been to re-engage and bind Russia to the West, where it truly belongs. Instead they have been driven into the arms of China, which everyone agrees is now the major threat to this country. This is not to ignore what they have done in Ukraine, but who green-lighted that “minor incursion” in the first place? 

Our overall policy should have been, and now going forward must be, not just containing Iran, but undermining and overthrowing the regime, that will otherwise continue to pose a major danger to the world. They have not changed at all over several decades now. How much longer will it take to fully understand that when they say death to America, death to Israel they really mean it? There is still an opportunity to make this Iranian plot blow up in their faces and even face the ire of their own long-oppressed population. We must somehow develop the will and determination to win this war once and for all. If we fail to do so the prospects for world peace will be far worse than they are now.  

 

WRONG TIMING ON CHINA

There is a near-universal chorus shouting “We can’t back down now,” in the face of threats and aggression, but in the case of Nancy Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan it is lunacy to tempt fate with a conflict that we are currently ill-prepared for. Even the Pentagon knows this. We have a lamentable pattern in this country of stumbling into war without fully thinking out the consequences. We are ever prone to short-term thinking in long-term situations. 

The Chinese do not suffer this handicap. They pursue long-range strategies with careful consideration, while we tend to react precipitously. Thus the Chinese Communists have long planned to bypass the USA in terms of world power, and further, to undermine us at every possible opportunity, which we have yet to fully grasp. All this time, and especially since the rise of the current leadership in China, they have in fact been engaged in a subtle, low-intensity war against this country. They have penetrated and compromised many of our institutions, including universities, corporations, and and politicians themselves, the extent to which we still barely recognize. In fact, the next big scandal to erupt in this country’s likely to be “the great betrayal;” i.e. degree to which we have been seriously compromised by an inept, greedy, and rotten elite. 

The Chinese Communists know a lot more about us and our vulnerabilities than we do in reverse. This is a result of chronically short-sighted leadership across the board, and a near total inability to develop and maintain a long-term strategy about anything. This has been brought about by the ephemeral nature of our politics; ever shifting and always subordinate to the “issues of the day.” 

With regard to Taiwan we have put ourselves in an untenable position.  We have, all along maintained that it is part of China, which of course is the Chinese position, which puts us on shaky ground in any potential conflict. At the same time it is true that Taiwan has been democratically self-governing long enough to have developed into an advanced democracy, with an increasing identity of its own, just as Ukraine has developed over the space of a few decades a comparable identity, or sadly, the way Kabul had changed in Afghanistan before they were shamefully abandoned. 

Furthermore we are currently in a position where we and the western world are have become dependent on Taiwan for some advanced technology and can ill afford to see that gone before it has been relocated, duplicated, or otherwise secured. Furthermore the acquisition of Taiwan will certainly put China on top in short order as things currently stand. These are hard-core, amoral realpolitik concerns. At the same time there is the basic reality that an island this close to home is clearly much more in the core interests of the Chinese, and they will go after it in total while we will at best be half-hearted about a place on the other side of the globe. The smart move would have been to simply arm the Taiwanese to the point where they could act in their own self-defense; but not enough has been done.

The problem is that we are currently woefully  ill-prepared for any sort of military conflict with China. It is one thing to not “back down” when you have the advantage, and another to do so from a weakened position. That doing so would send a bad signal to allies is just short-sighted, because it would only be temporary and the wise thing is to step back until we are prepared and have the power to prevail and strike at the right time. They think that way and we don’t, and if we don’t become more Machiavellian, or even godfather-like in our strategies we will be in deep trouble. There are just too many things wrong at this time, namely:

1. Incompetent leadership. Does anyone want to get into a military conflict with Joe Biden as commander-in-chief? 

2. A military that has been badly damaged by idiotic “woke” policies and vaccine dismissals and is simply not ready for any kind of serious conflict at this point. 

3. In even entertaining any kind of conflict have we tightly coordinated with allies like Japan and Australia to have a joint strategy and preparation for conflict?  Unlikely. 

4. Can we enter a full-blown military conflict, which will rapidly supersede everything else, without serious damage at home? 

5. We have no clear idea of the extent to which the Chinese Communists have penetrated our society, taking advantage of our political divisions and disarray.

6. Have we done anything substantial enough to decouple from China without harming ourselves?

7. Do we even know who has managed to penetrate our defenseless, abandoned southern border?

8. Do we know what the Chinese are up to in buying up farmland near military bases?

9. Do we have any inkling of how many self-serving elites have been bought by China?

Changing Pelosi’s schedule is hardly “backing down.” In fact it removes any pretext for China to act under conditions that are currently favorable to them. That doesn’t mean we surrender or give up; it is a tactical move to enable us to finally begin to take this threat seriously and prepare, with the rest of our allies, for circumstances that will be more in our favor. Furthermore, short of that we haven’t even done anything to try and undercut Chinese influence around the world, in places like Africa, whose inhabitants are increasingly chafing under Chinese domination, or to respond in kind to continuous covert aggression against our country. We have allowed ourselves to be played. 

This is currently a country where a scoundrel like Eric Swallwell was found to be sleeping with a Chinese spy on his staff, but instead of being expelled from congress, Pelosi put him on the intelligence committee!  Yet we are supposed to not “back down” on behalf of Pelosi. We have been asleep at the switch, oblivious to the threat right in front of us while facing internal disintegration that leaves us ill-prepared for anything serious. It is vital we get our own house in order before adapting  a posture that is oblivious to our own sorry condition. It is time to get our act together before it is too late.

RUSSIA, UKRAINE AND THE WEST

It is beyond the realm of possibilities that a senile Joe Biden could have outfoxed Vladimir Putin. But the results appear as though he has. Putin initially engaged in saber-rattling with Ukraine in the hopes of exacting some concessions from the West. One concern in particular was not unreasonable, namely a guarantee that Ukraine would not be brought into NATO, given the idea of a perceived national threat directly on their border. The appropriate thing would be to allay this concern over time. 

However when Biden didn't bite and essentially said go ahead and invade (on a limited scale), it pulled the rug out from under Putin. Any invasion, even if ultimately successful, would clearly be costly for the Russians. Putin had probably hoped that he would gain some concessions, and then back down without losing face. Now he is stuck in a situation where he has little choice but to make good on his  threats. 

But if he goes forward it will be costly for the Russians, in terms of lives lost, as well as resulting further sanctions from the West. This will not sit well domestically with the Russian people which may in turn further undermine the popularity of his government. As a result Putin has gone from a relatively low-cost winning proposition to a no-win situation, perhaps leaving little choice but to go ahead with a limited invasion, as helpfully suggested by Biden, who, given pronouncements regarding Americans leaving Ukraine, may in fact have a heads up. This makes the whole situation comical, were it not for the tragedy, even a “limited” tragedy that is likely to occur for the hapless troops on the ground. 

Our whole approach towards Russia since the fall of communism has been short-sighted and insensitive. Putin has some legitimate concerns regarding the Russians “stranded” in bordering countries following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the shaky geographical result in some regions. We should have been making some attempt to assuage such concerns, as well as ameliorating the overall situation by bringing Russia back into the West, instead of pushing them into the arms of China, which is the greatest external threat we face today. If we do not change course on this we will indeed be facing a perilous situation going forward. 

 

WHAT REALLY MATTERS ABOUT JANUARY 6, 2021

When Biden and Harris spoke this morning my jaw dropped in disbelief. It is apparent that the Democrats are going to use the riot of last Jan.6 as a new holiday of sorts to obscure their utter and complete failure on every single problem this country faces. No doubt it stirred emotion among Democratic partisans and the gullible, and anger among Republicans, but it all seems blind to the most significant to occurrence that day, which to me seemed obvious at the time, and still resonates, which was the failure to maintain security at the Capitol. So we need to look at the facts and get past the emotion.

Joe Biden gave a terrible divisive speech devoted largely to attacking Donald Trump, who, it must be said, provides a target-rich environment, mostly consisting of remarks he should have addressed a year ago. Apparently someone woke him up, wound him up, and sent him out to the podium to deliver a bitterly partisan speech, largely beating a dead horse in attacking Donald Trump, instead of uttering a single unifying word. That is why it was completely disingenuous, at best designed to motivate Democrats, and at worst to confirm him as absolutely the worst president in the history of the USA.

To be clear, I do not for a minute believe the overall presidential election last year was stolen. I find that suggestion to be untenable, and Donald Trump’s behavior since the election bizarre and sadly self-destructive, following a highly successful term of accomplishment against daunting odds. But any honest assessment of the past few years will find the most  egregious “threat to democracy” to have occurred during and after the Obama administration when the security services of the county were compromised and debased into partisan weapons against the incoming administration; (never mind the endless and worse “big lie” that the Russians were really in control, ultimately found to have emanated from the Hillary Clinton campaign and buried by the dishonest media). This was substantively far worse than a disorganized mob milling around the Capitol that was shockingly and poorly secured. It was a passing event, as opposed to deep and lasting damage to the state that has not only compromised  its legitimacy but only gotten worse, as we see these now comical security services unleashed against parents concerned about the poisonous ideology being imposed upon school children, or chasing phantom white racists while adversaries around the world are laughingly eating our lunch. 

There have been other instances in the past where “sacred” government facilities have be debased. When Andrew Jackson was elected president a mob was invited into the White House that became unruly and caused a great deal of damage. As far as January 6th goes, if there in fact had been any controlling conspiracy (yet to be found) to seize the Capitol it would have succeeded given how abysmally poor the security was. Now who actually had controlling responsibility over the Capitol police? None other than Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself. Yes, what became a mob was fed a lot of misinformation, and a handful actually destructively breached the facility (which allowed most to just wander around aimlessly taking selfies) but the lesson to take away from this is not the grave “threat to democracy” that occurred but the astonishingly unprepared, clueless security that day, which was just  inexcusable. It could easily have been a more organized attack by foreign enemies of the country, domestic radicals, or any bad player you can think of. 

Thus, it is false and misleading nonsense to suggest that foreign adversaries saw democracy as unworkable and under siege, when what actually registered with them was how bad the security was and how easy it was to breach. What they are still seeing is a bumbling, disorganized, dysfunctional security apparatus that can be penetrated compromised in a myriad of ways, thanks to the idiots in charge. They just don’t take this government seriously any more with its penchant for “stern warnings,” and “serious consequences” that never materialize. 

For Joe Biden to stand there and obfuscate the situation with canned rhetoric and dark fantasies about the terrible and apparently ongoing threat to democracy is preposterous, and worse a lame and devious attempt cover over the disastrous incompetence and failure of his administration across the board. It will no doubt stir the blood of partisans and pompous, gullible, and just plain stupid media mavens, who solemnly will continue the performance, and dutifully carry water for the Big Fool, but the real truth is that this country is in deep trouble, and hopefully enough people will be smart enough to see through the ruse, and respond accordingly at the ballot box. 

THE ENDLESS COVID PANDEMIC

 I've been pretty sick since a little before the end of last year. Once I stopped throwing up and got my temperature down I was able to function, though very lethargically. I am better now but I've been isolating myself at my summer house because it is almost certainly COVID,  and one of my doctors is ordering the antibody test to confirm. 

I was vaccinated three times, and it is possible it was either not so effective or it prevented me from coming down with something far worse. I don't know, and I think nobody really knows. That is a big problem. This whole thing has degenerated into a disastrous situation where trust has been further lost and clumsy attempts to stop the free flow of information have only made it worse. We need to see things in the light of day with verifiable facts in order to make an informed judgement. But that judgement is, and should be our own and not dictated by some higher authority, especially when it is one we do not have full confidence is. Everyone is an individual with different physiologies and accordingly must be addressed as a unique individual human, not via a heavy handed, dictatorial directive putting everyone in the same box, and worse sanctioning them if they do not comply with the order. There is no possible justification for throwing healthy people out of work, and worse denying them unemployment. 

It is going to be years before anyone can sort out the truth on this due to all of the obfuscation. Are hospital death counts accurate, or is more being attributed to COVID than is warranted? What is the definitive utility of masks? Of vaccinations? Of treatments? The administration has botched the distribution of tests so that demand now exceeds supply, and has done very little on what is probably the more important element here, namely cures for people that have come down with it instead of just ordering vaccinations. This is just incomprehensible. The application of cures has been largely left to individuals, doctors, hospitals and states, and has resulted in an unnecessary ball of confusion rolling through social media. Furthermore, it is now increasingly obvious that the vaccine is not enough, nor totally effective so the present crisis is the people who re currently suffering, which mean prioritizing cures.

I still think it is prudent for older folks to be vaccinated, given the inevitability of declining health, but there is no reason whatsoever to force it on small children and others, where there is no evidence that requires, perhaps outside of nonscientific demands from the Teachers Unions. 

Meanwhile China has paid no price for infecting the whole world unnecessarily, and I mean a substantive price, not lame gestures like boycotting the Olympics, which should never be done under any circumstances. It is unfair to the athletes, and contrary to the Olympic spirit, which involves bringing everyone, especially enemies together. No there must be a stiffer price, and we should begin to act in concert with our allies to develop one. I tend to suspect that this was in fact created and leaked from a lab. It has spread and mutated like nothing we have ever seen before. 

The real question is intent. Was it some sort of accident or did the Communists deliberately spread it. On the one hand it is highly unlikely that they would first inflict this on their own people. But we are talking about hard-line communists in power now, who see everything in collective terms and care nothing about individual lives. Any sacrifice is fine in order to build communism, which is why over 100 million people were killed in the last century. For that matter, given their indifference to human life it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they would, by the same lights, launch a nuclear war or greater plague on the assumption that given their huge population enough will survive to build the golden era of communism while eliminating all their enemies. After all, on a lighter note Reagan once asked for people to be free to leave China and come to America if they wished. So Chou En-Lai replied, how many Chinese do you want? 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, or something to that effect. 

We must get to the bottom of this one way or another. The West now faces a ruthless adversary intent on pushing us all aside any way they can. They steal our secrets, compromise our sports, Hollywood, and corporations that no longer have any loyalty to the USA, and for this there must be, there will be a reckoning. 

FUTILE MONUMENTS

In Brooklyn’s Prospect Park there stands a monument to those who died in World War 1. The names of locals who perished are displayed on three great bronze tablets, one of which has fallen off, leaving that set of names to oblivion.  The edifice is generally in disrepair and no one seems to care. Very few people stop even for a moment  to look at it, and obviously no one is maintaining it. For no one remembers anyone on the list now, so there is a total absence of anyone feeling a direct connection and a need to keep up the monument. They might as well have died at the battle of Marathon as far as contemporaries are concerned, and so they are consigned to the distant past and barely a century later. There are probably similar examples in other places in the same condition as in Brooklyn where the demographics have changed so much that relatives and descendants have virtually disappeared. 

When this memorial was constructed the war monuments were largely local, commemorating the sacrifice of people from the area. Communities everywhere felt the loss at the time, for even though the USA did not enter the war until near the end, over 112,000 died in a few months, tipping the balance towards victory. That war changed everything. Without it people would not have suffered under the communism of the Soviet Union, there would have been no World War II in Europe, and the US would not have been entangled in subsequent wars in Korea and Viet Nam.  The map of Europe would be very different, and the existing regimes might have continued forward instead of collapsing. There would have been no Hitler and Stalin, and millions upon millions of lives might have been spared. 

The Great War is remembered more in Europe, especially in the U.K., where commemorations continue to this day, due to the magnitude of their losses. There were 16 million deaths and 20 million casualties in the war. The British Empire lost 908,371, France 1,357,800, Russia 1,700,000, Italy 650,000, Romania 335,706, as well as losses in several smaller countries, including Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, and Montenegro. On the other side Germany lost 1,773,700, Austria-Hungary 1,200,000, Turkey 325,000, and Bulgaria 87,500. 

Many if not most of these deaths resulted from commanders treating troops as cannon fodder by sending them into battle with the certain expectation of heavy losses in lines close to the enemy in a futile attempt to gain some ground. The hopeless slaughter of men dug in in trenches went on four years. Due to the horrendous waste of lives, no one today could send large masses of troops to knowingly be slaughtered. Today every death is felt, and commanders are more apt to avoid casualties to the extent possible, keeping losses low. 

The Great War originated what is now Veterans Day. An armistice commenced on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month ending the conflict.  As a result, a national holiday  called Armistice Day was declared, to be celebrated on November 11 of every year. However, since the “war to end all wars” failed and subsequent conflicts arose, it was changed to Veterans Day in 1954. 

There is no excuse for allowing such monuments to deteriorate, considering that others once put their lives, hearts, and souls into them. There is no excuse for being so oblivious to the past that much of the public is completely ignorant as to what happened during those years. As the philosopher George Santayana wrote "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." For a country without a past does not have a future. A country which cannot honor its past does not deserve a future. Let not that be the case in America. 

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE PART 2

There are those who are criticizing President Obama for not doing more about Russia and the Ukraine. I would argue that he and Kerry ought to be doing less because what they are doing is so inept it is almost comical. We have a weak leader (as perceived by a majority of Americans) playing a weak hand. Given that, less is better than more, lest the US be perceived as even weaker. Red lines that are indefensible and threats of “consequences” that impress no one are pointless. Given the nature of this administration, the less action there is the less embarrassment there will be.

Putin sees a power vacuum, with weak, irresolute western leaders that he has only contempt for, and he is acting on it. The main basis for the “illegality” of Russian actions is an agreement made in the 1990s to guarantee the territorial integrity of Ukraine as it gave up its nuclear weapons. Among the signatories to this were Russia and the US. So Russia has reneged on another agreement. Who is surprised by this? For it is not only international agreements that they have discarded but also contracts with gullible western corporations dumb enough to do business there under current conditions. 

The notion of the “west” and Russia as the “east” is a false dichotomy. The Russians inherited the same Greek foundation as the west via Greek monks who created their alphabet and converted them to Christianity a thousand years ago. It is ironic that after more than seven decades of communism Russia today is far more Christian than the west. It is through this prism that Putin views western countries as degenerate and weak. But Russia also feels threatened by NATO expansion to its borders, which is one of the main reasons that Putin wants the former Soviet republics to get in line with Russia. 

The real barrier to better relations and integration with the western world is the lack of rule of law in Russia, which involves more than just arbitrary government. Normal business cannot be conducted with parties who renege on contract agreements. This will continue as long as there is not a a truly independent judiciary. Constitutional government requires more than the formal edifice of institutions with separate powers. Putin’s government is not so much in opposition to this as several steps removed. His model now is essentially that of the state as protector of traditional values, defender of the faith, etc.  with himself at the apex of the state. Nevertheless his government still has support with the majority of the population.

This is not to suggest that Russian aggrandizement should not be opposed, but realistically just what assets do we have available for this? This administration does not have the standing in the world to support its posturing. We need to take a longer term view to a post-Obama (and Putin) world. If Russia annexes Crimea based upon a popular vote it will backfire on them badly. For if Crimea can have self-determination then logically the restive regions in the Caucasus could do the same. Thus Chechnya and Dagestan could use the same pretext to break away from Russia. What the US and other western countries need to do is focus on rebuilding the economy, institutions, and strength at home before we can be taken seriously abroad.