UKRAINE UPDATE – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  This is getting very dangerous, just as we are reducing our deterrent forces.  As Col. Dowd says in his comments, posted just below, "Inevitably, just at the moment we feel it prudent to significantly reduce our military forces, the need for them has rushed in upon us."  Russia is becoming increasingly militant, with Vladimir Putin apparently trying to rebuild the Soviet empire.  From the Washington Post:   

MOSCOW — Pro-Russian militants ignored a deadline set by the Ukrainian government and remained ensconced Monday morning in buildings they have occupied in strategic towns throughout the eastern part of the country.

Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine’s acting president, said Monday that a major “anti-terrorist” operation announced the night before would get underway. But he also declared that he would be open to a referendum next month on a decentralization of authority to Ukraine’s regions.

The occupiers have claimed that a referendum is what they are seeking. But they are unlikely to credit Turchynov’s intentions. Since the appearance over the weekend of heavily armed pro-Russian squads in a handful of towns, accompanied by sporadic gunfights that have left at least nine injured and one dead, the prospects for a negotiated settlement have dimmed considerably.

In Luhansk, close by the Russian border, workers were evacuated from the local administration building Monday morning, the Interfax news agency reported, without being told why. In Horlivka, about 150 separatists stormed the local police headquarters, according to the unian.net news service.

Authorities in Kiev accuse Russia of stirring up trouble in an attempt to disrupt Ukraine and destabilize the government.

“The blood of Ukrainian heroes has been shed in a war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine,” Turchynov said in an address to the nation Sunday evening.

COMMENT:  There is genuine fear in Western capitals that Russia might move militarily into Ukraine.  Our government keeps warning Moscow against such a move, but why would Putin take these warnings seriously?  He sees Obama reducing American forces and ridiculing the wisdom of past generations as "20th-century thinking."  Guess what, Barack?  Putin is living in the 20th century, and he's mastered it.

April 14, 2014