An alternative view of Putin and Ukraine

from Instapundit and Ron Radosh

Those guys want us to stand tall  ( my words and inference ) against Putin, but don't exactly say how this will be done.

It’s the old apology for the Soviet Union by the Communists and fellow-travelers brought up to date to explain away Putin. Stalin and his minions in the West used to explain every Soviet action as a fault of “capitalist encirclement,” to which the poor USSR had to act to defend itself. So Cohen believes now we “went a bridge to far” in Ukraine. Putin had to act to defend the just national interests of Russia.

and,

Once again, leftists like Stephen Cohen join with paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan in opposing a stand for democracy, and in charging critics of Putin with unfairly and aggressively opposing Putin’s supposed just and necessary policies. When will we learn the lessons we should have learned from the past? --- Ron Radosh

So, what exactly do we do about it?  No specificity to that is provided here.

Incidentally, the use of the far left and paleoconservatives as if they were equivalent is what might be called a smear.  Just exactly what is meant by that?  This looks like a desperate argument to me.

Update:

There was a link elsewhere that does go into specifics.  Okay.  A failure by the administration to do these kind of minimalist things could be used against them.  Go for it.