Why are we upset about Crimea joining Russia?

First, the history: Until 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union the Ukraine was never a separate country.

Kiev is the birthplace of Russian culture.

The Crimea was ceded to the Russians in the late 1700s by the Turks after the Russian army defeated the Ottomans.

The great majority of the inhabitants of Crimea are ethnic Russians who speak the Russian language. The Ukraine government has made it very clear that they want to associate with Western Europe, while the people of the Crimea want to identify with Russia.

The people of the Crimea voted to join Russia.

Of course Putin and Russia want control of Crimea -- there are important resources involved as well as one of the most important Russian naval bases.

Sanctions against Russia for its action in taking over Crimea will have consequences -- including Russia withdrawing from the sanctions it and the European community have placed -- in conjunction with the U.S. -- against Iran.

What are the advantages in antagonizing Putin at this point in time?

We have no intention of fighting Russia over this situation, why pretend we do?

Nobody is pretending to fight over Crimea. You have the usual suspects attacking the President, but after the cursory attacks, even they do not want to commit to defining Crimea as a zone of American vital interest. The Kennan realism has not changed in 60 years and it certainly is not going to change now. However, the failure of American policy in the 1950s was the perception of a monolithic communist threat without seeing the natural divisions based on historical cultural and nationalist sentiments, and now equally foolish would be to discount those same historical and cultural ties under the guise of some general political philosophy.