Playing the chicken in Kiev -- By Wesley Pruden, The Washington Times

America has become a paper tiger with cardboard teeth, and nobody knows this better than Vladimir Putin. Who can blame him? Some of Barack Obama's red lines are missing, and he can't remember where he put them.

He drew a red line across Iran and warned that a nuclear weapon in the hands of the mullahs in Iran "is unacceptable." Since he didn't say what the meaning of "is" is, or the meaning of "unacceptable," either, he left it to others to define what he meant with his defiant language.

The president likes words, and can spin them together better than most, but words, however heroic and inspiring, are cheap in the hands of a man who doesn't believe a word of them.

Mr. Putin's adventuring into Ukraine was clearly carefully thought out. He looked for evidence that Mr. Obama was merely a blowhard and a con man, fooling most of the people most of the time.

He might fool enough foolish American voters to give him two terms in the office once held by Lincoln, two Roosevelts, Harry S. Truman and Ronald Reagan, but he wouldn't fool an old KGB hand, who, evil or not, is experienced in recognizing the weak spot inviting attack.

Mr. Obama's fondness for heroic rhetoric — in crises in Egypt, Iran, Syria and now Ukraine and Crimea — backed up by nothing more than a smile and a shoeshine (and not even a necktie), represents a target too rich for a villain to ignore.

Mr. Obama warned everybody to behave, telling Viktor Yanukovych, president of Ukraine before he was driven from office by democracy protesters, that "there will be consequences if people step over the line."

He dispatched a national security adviser to say that brutal repression in Ukraine is "completely outrageous" (which is apparently worse than merely "outrageous").

Mr. Obama thinks his words are enough to slow down evildoers, with no follow-through necessary. He never learned, because he is neither a student of America, nor of the American presidency.

He's just not very interested in the America he was elected to govern. He arrived at the White House promising a "reset" of relations with Mr. Putin and the Russians, apparently unaware of what he wanted to reset, and unaware that Russia dreams of restoring itself as a great power and is willing to do anything to achieve it.

(Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content