Before we Americans get all holy roller about Russia sending troops into Crimea let’s not forget we set the standard for invasion, and the bar is damned low. I’m against Russia’s action, but they have more legitimate interests in Crimea than the US ever had in Iraq.

W instituted a policy of engagement to prevent a perceived threat, and Russia is just taking up our mantle. Don’t be a hypocrite. If you were for the Iraq war you can’t criticize Russia for this.

We are witnessing the consequences of our own short term thinking. Any despot can now claim a perceived threat anywhere in the world regardless of how flimsy the evidence (think WMDs and when Al Qaeda actually gained a presence in Iraq) and send in the troops. That’s what the US continues to claim with our drone strikes, and we gave the world a glaring example in Iraq.

Is the US the world’s policeman? Is the US a moral authority and example for the world? I believe we have forfeited any right to criticize Russia’s actions from the moral high ground.

War on the face of it is immoral. Thirteen civilians die for every soldier’s death worldwide. We should support any person(s) or people(s) who want the freedom to determine their own life (lives.) But the policies of the US are too selective (Ukraine but not DRC? Syria? Ethiopia? Mexico?) and screams ethnic favoritism.

We all have to make difficult moral decisions in our lives, and often not making a decision is the decision we make that’s the most harmful. At least strive to be consistent, as an individual, a family, a people, as human beings.

The US could make the world such a better place, if we just had the moral and rational backbone to attempt to live up to our rhetoric. It’s OK to fail, it’s not OK to fail to try.