the goebel stage do, you think the president has looked ineffective? is that a fair assessment about his reaction to this, and also before with crimea? well, one opinion is if obama had been tough with putin in syria or crimea, this ukrainian thing would have ended. i think that s wrong. my view is that american policy toward ukraine and that part of the world in general and specifically russia has been unwise for 20 years. and it s now led almost into the crisis. he continued the policy. the policy has as its peerhead pushing nato towards russia s a borders along with missile defense as bill richardson mentioned, and eventually to taking in ukraine that was the whole plan. and it s come to this. by the way, there is a ray of light. can i give you the one ray of light? of course. everybody know what s the negotiating points are on all sides. everybody knows what it is. we don t have to go into it.