The Dominos are falling

The weakness in Syria has resulted in Russia feeling free to take over the Crimea from the Ukraine (the locals probably are happy, since many are ethnic Russians: so the correct parallel is not Hitler in the Sudetenland, but Germany taking over Austria, something that was not allowed in 1917,  the real problem was that alas Hitler was running Germany at the time).

But StrategyPage points out another lesson from this:

the Ukraine gave up their nukes after an agreement that everyone would let them alone. That didn't work well, so the Russians are pointing out the locals did it, not them (ha).

and Iran realizes: without nukes, they can also be pushed around, but with nukes, they can go back to being the Persian empire, with the Mullahs instead of Xerxes, in charge.

Iranians believe the negotiations to limit Iranian nuclear research and development is an effort to block Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Most Iranians see nukes as a necessity for maintaining Iranian dominance in the region. Iran has been the regional superpower for thousands of years.

And in the meantime, Obama is cutting the army and the Navy.

Where is Themistocles when we need him?

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Mother Jones notices that corruption behind the natural gas etc. in that area