My dear man, crowned heads are free to play a little game of courtesy, but nations owe one another none. — Becket

Like I’ve said before, all of the revelations from Edward Snowden about the government keeping watch on American citizens is fair game. There are moral, ethical, and legal reasons why the NSA and the rest of the alphabet soup shouldn’t be doing these things. But the moment the revelations start talking about what the U.S. government does to foreign governments and individuals, he crosses a line with me. Even when we’re talking about allies like Great Britain or Germany, it’s the job of our government to gather intelligence from foreign powers. I fully expect that the BND and GCHQ have a file open on Barack Obama, so why is it such a surprise that the NSA has files on Andrea Merkel and David Cameron?

You stood up to be counted with the enemies of everything the Grail stands for! Who gives a *damn* what you believe? — Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

When you pick a side, you get to own the positions and actions of that side. That means that, as a capitalist, I can expect to take heat for imperialism, banana republics, and African slavery. If you identify as a socialist or communist, expect that I am going to throw Auschwitz, the Gulag, and the Cultural Revolution at you. The best defense is to be as educated as you can be about not only the skeletons in your own political closet, but also about the good that your side does.

You call this a happy family? Why do we have to have all these kids? — It’s A Wonderful Life

I’ve lived without my children, and it sucked. Heck, I’ve lived without both Irish Woman and the childen, and it sucked. I grouse about the carefree life I’d have if I were single or if Irish Woman and I could be empty nesters, but it’s all smoke. The ability to get up in the middle of the night and make sure that Boo is safely asleep in his bed, or that Moonshine is standing guard at the foot of Girlie Bear’s bed, is so comforting that I can’t describe it. We almost lost all contact with Little Bear for a couple of years after Girlie Bear came to live with us, and those were some of the toughest times in my life. Yeah, I’m a bear with a sore head with the family sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything, because they are the source of my happiness.

I don’t know which was scarier, the speech or the Congress cheering it. He evoked Lincoln. Whenever a president is gonna get us into serious trouble, they always use Lincoln. — 2010

President Obama is making noises, but is definitely working from a weak position. My gut tells me that, if we get involved, we are going to send a speed bump force. That is, something that isn’t meant to stop the Russians, but is meant to act as a trip wire to bring whatever force we can muster to bear when they are run over. I have mixed feelings on whether or not we should be involved. We made something of a moral commitment to the Ukraine when she gave up her nuclear arms, even if the actual commitment was to go to the U.N. to seek aid. At the same time, whether or not we have a national interest compelling enough to mix it up with the Russians is very debatable. I’m just hoping that we have wiser leadership than our ancestors have had in the past, because this could be a lot worse than other wars if we go wrong.

And please don’t think that I find fault with President Obama alone.  The way that Presidents Bush Senior and Clinton acted toward the Soviet Union as it fell and Russia in its aftermath created a lot of resentment.  “We won the Cold War” told the Russians that they lost, and that they deserved the poverty, chaos, and corruption that followed.  The fact that NATO not only survived the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, but also expanded into Eastern Europe played right into those who want to exploit the parts of Russian culture that look at the rest of the world with at least a touch of paranoia.  Rubbing their noses in it was counter-productive, and led almost directly to the rise of Putin.

Bush the Younger didn’t help with the public scorn that his administration heaped on “Old Europe” over the invasion of Iraq.  Even his “I looked into his soul” attitude toward Putin did nothing to improve relations or even make our relationship with Russia clear.  He also failed to clarify our relationship with the countries on Russia’s periphery, which encouraged places like Georgia to think we would stand with them if Russia got frisky.  This was a belief that they found to be wrong at the worst possible moment.

President Obama has maybe 24 hours to get in front of this.  If he’s going to oppose Putin, be it diplomatically, economically, or militarily, he needs to do it and do it now.  Going to the U.N. or the E.U. will just mean that the debate will be over about 48 hours Putin guarantees the security of East Ukraine.  He also needs to articulate to the American people, clearly and effectively, why any involvement in Ukraine is necessary.  In the event that he decides that showing the flag with a naval task force or sending of ground forces to Ukraine is necessary, he needs to get authorization from Congress.

A lot of people are comparing February 2014 to August 1914, including me.  But even with all of the parallels that we can find, I think this is closer to 1938.  An enemy that we thought we had bested 20 years ago is flexing her muscles again.  She is picking a fight with a small country on her border that we have good relations with.  And we need to decide now, not next week, whether we need to play the part of Great Britain to Ukraine’s Sudetenland.  The Russian Anschluss has begun, and we need to either pick a side or get out of the way.