The New York Times quotes Executive VP Damon Wilson on President Obama’s renwed focus on Europe and NATO:
“Putin just declared war on the European order and it’s demanding that the United States focus on Europe again as a security issue,” said Damon Wilson, a former national security aide to Mr. Bush and now executive vice president of the Atlantic Council. While some Republicans have pushed the president to be tougher, Mr. Wilson praised Mr. Obama’s response. “I don’t think I’ve seen the president more personally engaged on any foreign policy crisis in a concerted way as he has been on Ukraine.”
Mr. Obama’s speech here on Wednesday offered his most extensive rejoinder yet to Russia, a point-by-point refutation of every justification offered by Moscow for its seizure of Crimea. He rejected Mr. Putin’s comparison of his actions in Crimea to the West’s actions in Kosovo. He said Kremlin claims of persecution of Russian speakers in Ukraine were not true and called it “absurd” to suggest America supported fascists in Kiev. “No amount of propaganda can make right something that the world knows is wrong,” he said.