US Versus Russia

Prior to World War II, Germany in the form of the Nazi party tried to take military control of Western Europe. Neville Chamberlain of Britain tried to appease Hitler, which only delayed opposing military action and allowed Germany to occupy more of Western Europe. A halt was called through the Allied military invasion of Normandy, for which we just celebrated the 70th anniversary.
While the Germans were ultimately defeated in World War II, Joseph Stalin of Russia tried to pick up the same agenda started by Hitler. To counteract this, the US set up the North American Treaty Organization (NATO). It basically included most member countries of Western Europe and the United States. The agreement was that if Stalinist Russia attacked any of the NATO members, all others would come to their military aid. This held Russian expansion to a Soviet Union composed primarily of backward northern European countries and Eastern Europe.
Present Reagan eventually put the Soviet Union out of business by considerably cranking up military capability of the United States. This forced the Soviet Union to try to match that military buildup, but they were unable to do so economically, and the Soviet Union collapsed.
Vladimir Putin is currently premier of Russia. He is a member of the old guard, and we strongly suspect that he is trying to reestablish Russia as the leader country in a newly constructed Soviet Union. He has taken over the Crimea, and has made noises indicating his desire to take all of the Ukraine. A new Soviet Union, similar to Nazi Germany and the old Soviet Union, would have a severe limiting effect on the personal freedoms of the people involved in the Knew Soviet Union. As a semi-pacifist, my first reaction is to let those people worry about their own personal freedoms themselves. However, the US fought a World War II in Europe to regain personal freedoms for Western Europeans. I personally have mixed feelings about the advisability of that operation, but it was done and public opinion is that it was a great success. On that basis, we would presumably do it again, but this time against the Russians rather than Nazi Germany.
However we have in the White House a peace monger. While NATO still exists and Pres. Obama has the power to use it militarily, it appears likely that he would not. At present, he appears to be traveling a course of restraint with Vladimir Putin based on sanctions, which involve economic disadvantage to Russia. Up to now, the sanctions have been minimal, but there's indication that they have been working, particularly with the threat that they could be increased to become more onerous. This may slow down or even eliminate Vladimir Putin's apparent desire for a revised Soviet Union. It's a strategy that seems to be working and to my mind much more favorable than killing hundreds of thousands of people in a military conflict, as would likely be promoted by warmonger John McCain.
I believe in general that the ideology and practices of President Barack Obama are completely wrong. But, he occasionally stumbles onto something which seems to be correct. The situation with Russia and the Ukraine seems to be one of those. I support him on these efforts, providing he uses his full hand of applying real sanctions, rather than think he can hoodwink Vladimir Putin with the usual rhetoric that he uses on the ill-informed segment of the American public.