Reading Putin’s Mind

The White House is said to be uncertain whether the latest bloodshed in eastern Ukraine is a manufactured pretext for Russia’s next round of military aggression. Boy, that’s a puzzler!

Here’s the first clue: Vladimir Putin is using the same playbook he used before in Georgia and Crimea. He’s also employing virtually identical rhetoric to that Adolf Hitler used to justify invasions to aid countrymen who were minorities in other nations.

Finally, neither Putin nor his co-conspirators are making any secret of their ambition to resurrect a “New Russia” out of Ukrainian territory – or their willingness to resort to the use of force to accomplish it.

The practical upshot of Team Obama’s musing about Putin’s intentions is to buy the Russians more time to do what we know they have in mind.