As my mother used to say. U.S. passivity continues to embolden Russia. (And Iran, and maybe China.) Good post by Abe Greenwald:

A strange and counterproductive psychology continues to prevent the U.S. from taking bold action against Russia’s move to reestablish itself as a global threat to freedom and democracy. There is a fear that if we respond decisively to Russian aggression, Russia won’t lend us much-needed support in various crises, particularly Iran’s quest to build nuclear weapons. I’ll say it again: Russia has just announced plans to base anti-submarine aircraft and a nuclear warship in Venezuela “temporarily,” before the end of the year. For doing nothing we’re already suffering the consequences we feared would come from acting. The only historical analogy to our state of denial I can think of comes, actually, from Russia. As Hitler’s troops got as close as fifteen miles away from Moscow, Stalin still refused to believe such an attack could ever really take place.

Read it all.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.