Post-Cold War Caution And Prudence Is Now Coming To An End

Members of the armed forces of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic gather near an armoured vehicle destroyed during battles with the Ukrainian armed forces in Vuhlehirsk, Donetsk region, February 4, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Pat Buchanan, Real Clear Politics: U.S.-Russia Clash in Ukraine?

Among Cold War presidents, from Truman to Bush I, there was an unwritten rule: Do not challenge Moscow in its Central and Eastern Europe sphere of influence.

In crises over Berlin in 1948 and 1961, the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Prague in 1968, U.S. forces in Europe stayed in their barracks.

We saw the Elbe as Moscow's red line, and they saw it as ours.

WNU Editor: There are times when I like reading a Pat Buchanan commentary .... this is one of those times.