Putin Asks for & Receives Approval to Use Force in Ukraine - Obama Responds Weakly

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent unmarked Russian-speaking military forces to the Ukraine during a time of great upheaval in the region.

Russia won't confirm that these soldiers are theirs, but they certainly are not from Canada.  There are also another 150,000 Russian troops conducting "military exercises" near the Ukrainian border.

Putin followed this invasion of a sovereign country with a request to the Russian parliament for an approval to send troops into Ukraine as tensions continue to rise, especially within the Crimea region.

The request for legislative approval in Russia came just one day after weak statements from United States President Barack Obama on the subject.  

On Friday, Obama said: 

"The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.  

"Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interest of Ukraine, Russia, or Europe. "It would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the Ukrainian people."

Coming from a world leader who said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a red line, "there will be costs" sounds pretty weak.

Obama and European leaders would do well to learn from the mistakes of the past.  Appeasement of dictators, in any form, only leads to further aggression from those dictators.  

That was clearly demonstrated by England Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, which conceding the German-populated Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. 

Chamberlain saw that as a way to avoid war with Hitler's Germany.  However when Adolf Hitler continued his aggression by invading Poland, leading Britain to declare war on Germany.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Make no mistake about it ... Putin sees an opportunity to restore a part of the former Russian empire and he has already taken bold, bold steps to do so, by force.

At this point, Obama hasn't said or done anything to distinguish himself Chamberlain when it comes to taking a strong stance against Russian aggression in Ukraine.

American Truism.