For months my colleague Justin Snyder and myself have been warning about the continued dangers of Russian aggression. For the most part our prognostications of doom have come to pass. We wish we had been incorrect, but unfortunately, the course of events have justified our long-standing concern.

We stress that at this moment we do not have any hard evidence that Russia or Russian-backed separatists were responsible for the MH 17 crash. But if Vladimir Putin’s Government is in any way shape or form responsible, action must be undertaken in some decisive form.

A theory exists that Russia’s dependence on EU markets will force them to back down. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reported last week Russia is slowly but surely making many of the Eastern Europen EU membership dependent on them economically, thus causing a split in European unity against the imperialist policies of Moscow.

President Obama whose meek approach to dealing with Putin has enabled the Russian madman did add more  sanctions on Russia this past week. This was a positive step. But unfortunately our western allies led by the likes of incredibly weak and indecisive David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the UK did not add similarly tough new sanctions. Besides, history teaches us that assumptions of that sanctions change behavior have been made before and have generally been off base.  From a historical standpoint most economic sanctions fail. The British led League of Nations embargo on Italy following the invasion of Ethiopia did virtually nothing to stop Mussolini’s aggression.  International sanctions against Rhodesia and South Africa for racist policies probably played little role in the eventual downfall of those white minority governments and thirty-three years of US led sanctions against Iran did little to cripple the Iranian economy nor the pariah behavior of Tehran’s fundamentalist religious regime until some degree of cooperation from non-western countries was developed just a few years ago. The US economic sanctions/embargo against Cuba stand as the best example of a failed policy to try and impact political behavior by economic means.

The United Nations has proven once again in this dispute that it is an absolutely useless organization with an excessively bloated bureaucracy when it comes to solving larger global political problems. The UN does good work on a number of humanitarian fronts, but when forced to curb Russian or Chinese aggression, or protect the liberal principles of democracy and religious freedom they routinely fail the test. The inaction the last four months on the situation in Ukraine proves once again how utterly useless the United Nations is as a global institution meant to maintain peace.

If Putin and his rebel allies in Ukraine are in fact responsible for this heinous crime several possible steps can be taken without direct US military intervention. Proactive steps were not taken by the United States and EU after the Crimea incursion.  Now is the time to take strong, decisive action. More than ever the United States needs to lead.

Everybody would like to avoid military conflict that involves American or Western European troops. However a proxy war might occur and even if one does not the United States must take strong action now to curb further Russian aggression. I would also state that while many people in the United States have personal reasons for continued American involvement in the Middle East, be it backing Israel or interfering in the domestic affairs of nations like Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, these conflicts are largely sideshows with minimal if any geopolitical value. We should allow events in those places to simply run its course. Israel is an ally but they can take care of themselves. If ISIS topples Maliki and establishes a conservative Sunni government, fine. If the Taliban regains control of Afghanistan, that is fine as well. None of these things will dramatically impact the United States, our economy and our interests globally the way Russian and by extension Chinese imperialism do.

Among the items that should be considered are as follows:

• Counter Russian economic advances in places like Hungary by placing a Missile-Defense Shied in Poland and the Czech Republic.
• Arm Ukraine’s government generously and send US Military Advisers to Kiev.
• Place Russia on the list of state-sponsors of terrorism if they are in fact in some way connected to the MH 17 crash.
• Begin to isolate the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad by sending NATO troops into the Baltic States and Poland.
• Urge the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to announce they are contemplating boycotting the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Ask the USSF to pressure other federations particularly England, Germany and France.
• Begin to apply fair economic principles to the BRICS nations, two of which China and India are particularly dangerous and have abused American trading privileges. These two nations have fallen into Putin’s orbit. Sino-Russo relations are stronger than any point since Stalin’s death in 1953 and India is now under a right-wing government whose leader has a history of anti-Muslim bigotry and who has sucked up to Putin.
• Continue pressure on Russian satellite states like Venezuela.
• Push the UK, our special ally to take similar actions even if the rest of the EU balks. Nigel Farage and the right-leaning independence minded UKIP (UK Independence Party) just became the first political party that is not the Conservatives or Labour to win a national election in a hundred years. The timing is right to break the UK off the policies of appeasement towards Russia pushed on the European continent.

While in theory these might seems like provocative steps, I sense Russia will either back down or be pushed by their Chinese and Indian allies to modify its behavior. It is possible simply threatening the above actions even if none are truly implemented could change Putin’s thinking radically. Then again global public opinion might just be able to swing so heavily against Putin that none of these steps will be necessary.  He may simply fold up the rebels all on its own.