In his remarks on the Russian "incursion" into Ukraine at the Nordea Concert Hall in Estonia Wednesday morning, President Obama set yet another toothless red line, saying, "We will not accept Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea—or any part of Ukraine."
After Obama failed to follow up with decisive action on his "red line" chemical weapons threat in Syria last year, he explained that he actually didn't set it in the first place: "I didn't set the red line," he said. "The world set a red line." Clearly in this instance, again, it's "the world" who will not "accept" a Russian occupation or annexation of Ukraine. If the Obama administration follows its pattern reinforced by the recent "invasion"/"incursion" word play, we will likely soon have convenient substitutes for "occupation" and "annexation." And there's little doubt about how "we" will respond to Russian aggression: more sanctions, more threats, more equivocation.
The president went on to make the idealistic and naive declaration Wednesday that "borders cannot be redrawn by the barrel of a gun" and people's rights can't "simply be taken away by brute force":
People across this continent have forged a European Union dedicated to cooperation and peace. We’ve made historic progress towards the vision we share of a Europe that is whole and free and at peace. And yet as we gather here today, we know that this vision is threatened by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It is a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, a sovereign and independent European nation. It challenges that most basic principles of our international system. That borders cannot be redrawn by the barrel of a gun. That nations have a right to determine their own future. It undermines an international order where the rights of peoples and nations are upheld and can’t simply be taken away by brute force.
It's in response to head-in-the-sand "happy talk" like this that Charles Krauthammer recently described Obama as "the image of a man in denial, on the verge of delusion."
