Leslie H. Gelb: Obama must show he’ll use military means to deter Russia in Ukraine
US President Barack Obama delivers a speech at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Palace of Fine Arts - BOZAR) in Brussels on March 26, 2014. Obama said Russia stood \"alone\" on the Ukraine crisis as he paid his first ever visit to European Union.
To deter Putin and other aggressors, diplomatic and economic slaps are not enough; the U.S. needs a military dimension. Don’t pop the champagne corks just yet because Vladimir Putin phoned Barack Obama to pursue diplomacy on Ukraine and environs. It may be just a ploy, like Moscow’s proposal to denude Syria of chemical weapons to head off a potent U.S. air strike against President Assad’s forces.
