An unexceptional Axis of Wrong -- By Charles Hurt, The Washington Times

I certainly understand why freedom-lovers around the world are upset over Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent incursion into Ukraine. And I understand why the good people of Georgia, Estonia and other democracy-minded countries take exception to this sort of Iron Curtain saber-rattling.

But I just cannot understand why it is that President Obama is so upset about it.

After all, Mr. Putin understandably believes in Russian exceptionalism. "Just, as I suspect, that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism," as Mr. Obama famously soft-pedaled an apologetic admission that he kinda, sorta believes in American exceptionalism in a remote, former-world-power kind of way.

Therefore, since Russia is basically landlocked by ice for much of the year, it is only reasonable that Mr. Putin would want to seize the territory between the motherland and the Crimean Peninsula, where Russia has a year-round, warm- and deep-water naval base in the Black Sea.

Without that vital port, Mr. Putin and his beloved Russia are nothing more than a fair-weather semi-power. Like a ferocious dog on a chain that can be mercilessly taunted by children and by little Chihuahuas from precisely one inch past the longest length of his chain.

Under Mr. Obama's "everybody is exceptional" geopolitical theory, Mr. Putin is not such a bad guy. He is not particularly ideological. He just really loves Russia and believes that Russia is exceptional, and, in this world where everybody gets a trophy, he is going to get the biggest one he can.

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