Senator Murphy Has Vlad Putin Backed Into Crimea

Well, that ought to show him:

“He’s not winning,” said Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“A couple of weeks ago he had the president of the entire country under his thumb. He had prevented them from joining the EU. Today, he’s essentially lost the rest of Ukraine. He’s become an international pariah,” said Murphy.

Putin has earned himself lectures from two men (Wiggleroom & Kerry) whom he neither respects nor fears. Putin is also a “pariah” with the leaders of Western Europe, whom he holds by the short and curlies with Russia’s energy exports.

It’s not that the West doesn’t hold any strong cards; we hold plenty. The problem is that we won’t play any of the really strong cards, and anyway Murphy’s condemnation is hardly one of them.

We would have been better off losing gracefully than losing with these constant displays of petulant impotence.