The "C"-Word.

The battle wages on in Russia and the Ukraine.

Russia, conveniently so, denies training, funding, and arming the Russian separatists active in the Eastern regions of the country. More recent developments report Russia sending in tanks in support of the aforementioned separatists, which would be a significant development in the situation.

Could forces backed up by Russia possibly overthrow the regime backed up by Kiev?
This most recent development of tanks is a step in the right direction.

Following World War 2, wars have been fought, untold billions have been spent, politicians have been elected, and even a scare campaign here at home has taken place; all in the name of stopping communism.

This has much less to do with our honorable troops than it has to do with hypocritical politicians who would never dare undertake such a burden themselves upon their own shoulders.

Anyway, people have demagogued the issue to death, and a few things became totally clear a few months back:

1- NATO as you know it is on the path of obsolescence.
Our stance with Russia is simply not tenable. And when push goes to shove, we won't do a darn thing in the Ukraine.

2- Even while some would say that efforts to prevent the spread of communism were relatively successful (at what cost?), has the time come for us to learn to simply learn to deal with it on the world stage? (Yes, I believe.)

3- The US and Russia do have other things in common that matter.

Shared Christian heritage matters.
Common foes matter.
Shared geopolitical aspirations matter.

Know what else matters?
Yes, the way we treat our brothers and sisters matters.

I want to be perfectly clear indicating that I believe that nuclear missiles pointed at us from 90 miles away was a valid concern.

Communism in Indochina, Korea, or Nicaragua was of questionable or negligible concern, in my opinion.

We won't be able to fix every problem everywhere, and that's fine.

But learning to deal with allies who favor a different economic structure is a tough pill that we may need to learn to swallow.