Russia takes a bite out of Ukraine

Armed and masked gunmen took over the parliament building in the Ukrainian province of Crimea (famous in British legend for the Valley of Death and the charge of the Light Brigade). The occupiers were probably Russian special forces operatives.

Just as Russia seized a chunk of the breakaway nation of Georgia a while ago, so it appears ready to wrest the Crimea from the government in Kiev. Will President Obama declare a "red line" that Putin must not cross? Will Putin laugh at it, just as his proxy did in Syria? And if he gets away with seizing the Crimea, will Putin then latch on to the rest of eastern Ukraine? Certainly there won't be much opposition from this American administration, to judge by its fecklessness in Egypt, Syria, Libya, and even Israel.