'The Price of Appeasement'

If the West and others would have come down swift and hard on Russia one year ago, when its military forces invaded the Crimean peninsula ahead of the March annexation, the world would be a better place today.

Instead, because of the West's dithering in refusing to confront the Kremlin dictator's expansionist aims, Ukraine is bleeding as a nation. More than 5,000 of its people have been killed in Russia's war, its treasury has been depleted and its economy is shrinking because of the toxic combination of Russia's military assault and economic blackmail, domestic corruption and incompetence, and the natural reluctance of investors to put their money in a nation at war.

Because of the lack of Western leadership, from U.S. President Barack Obama to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and everyone in between, the cost of saving Ukraine has gone up exponentially for the West.

Now Western powers face a stark choice: Give up or fight...

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