[Targan]

Stg58fal, I completely understand you not wanting to see American troops killed in a war half a world away over a conflict that has little to do with America. Most of the rest of your post seemed like a thinly-veiled rant against the side of American politics that you don't like. Suggesting that any US President, whether they're Democrat or Republican, would wait for an already-launched Russian ICBM to hit American soil before taking any retaliatory action, beggars belief.

Then when you have a little dig at the UN too (having a go at the UN seems to be a pretty popular passtime on this forum), it makes my objective reading of your more reasonable statements that much more difficult. Many forum members have made their disdain for the UN abundantly clear. You don't like the UN, fine. What's the alternative? No organisation of its kind? Or some new organisation that can somehow magically get set up and funded and have enough global representation to make it something less than a rich players club or a corporate lobby group?

I doubt many forum members here think that the US should go head-to-head (militarilly speaking) with Russia over the Crimea, but there are reasons other than prestige and money for the world to try and stop what's happening in the Ukraine. How about knowing when the actions of a major power are fundamentally wrong? How about standing up for the oppressed underdog? I remember when the US and its allies were into that. I guess money and national interests will always trump knowing right from wrong in this new age of enlightenment huh?