Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday laid out what he called the “extraordinary circumstantial evidence” pointing to a Russian-supplied missile in the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
For his part, Vladimir Putin continues to brazen it out, denying responsibility and even blaming Kiev.
Meanwhile, even President Obama’s fellow Democrats — such as New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — have criticized the response so far as weak.
Kerry says everything, except for sending in American troops, is on the table. Let’s hope so. Because there are plenty of options that would let Russia know there is a high price for its fomenting of aggression in the region. Here are just a few:
- At the least, give Ukraine the wherewithal it needs to defend itself.
- Resurrect Bush administration plans — canceled by Obama — to deploy a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe.
- Deploy US or NATO troops to Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe as a signal to Putin that further aggression will be counterproductive.
For those who prefer the sanctions route, there are many options that would have some bite — unlike the halfway measures Obama has so far relied on. These include:
- Recall ambassadors or otherwise limit diplomatic engagement with Moscow.
- Bar Russian banks from the American financial system.
- Impose sanctions and travel bans on all of Putin’s inner circle.
- Step up sales of US natural gas to Europe to replace the gas Russia sells it.
For a while, it might have been possible to believe the dispute between Russia and Ukraine was a regional matter. The murder of 298 innocents — including an American — who had nothing to do with that fight shows the consequences of allowing Putin to have his run of his neighborhood.
Time to make Putin respond to us instead of vice versa.