Winning in Ukraine could really hurt Putin's attempt to restore a Russian empire:
For the Kremlin, this is do or die. If Ukraine heads west, Putin is a flop and his national strategy for Russia to recover its great power status is toast. Russia will have failed decisively as a major world power and will inexorably join the other ex-imperial powers like Britain and France in the second division of the world power league.
Pakistan has given us grief and heartburn over the security of our line of supply through Pakistan. The oddity of having our main supply line go right through enemy territory was one of the more bizarre aspects of the campaign.
Having so many troops in landlocked Afghanistan has long worried me.
So I at least understand some of the limits President Obama operates under here. Things could be worse, no?
So far, my worst fears have not been realized. But one bit of collateral damage in our efforts to secure our supply lines to and from Afghanistan through Russia is Ukraine. If we didn't need Russian cooperation to maintain northern supply lines to Afghanistan as an alternative to the Pakistan route, we could have been more aggressive in pulling Ukraine to the West.
In the end, my view that the overthrow of the Iranian mullahs and their replacement with a friendlier government would help a number of our foreign policy goals gets one more point of support in the streets of Kiev.
