What we need to do is have a sit-down with Russia, off the record, and tell them everything has to return to the status quo of August 1, 2008. This could be a Munich moment for the West, as the similarities between this and the Sudetenland in 1938 are frighteningly clear. In so many ways Russia is in the same position as Germany was in 1938, and so, unfortunately, is the West with its 1938 counterpart. Germany, by its own admission, would have backed down in 1938 in the face of a strong reaction from the West. Russia, I believe, would react similarly today in the face of a strong reaction (and that reaction does not have to be military, but it does have to be UNITED). The West, aside form some verbal admonishments, will do nothing. And so the story goes. Again.
Only this time there are no Roosevelts or Churchills.