The United States, the European Union, and NATO are playing kingmaker again, this time in the Ukraine where the stakes could be nuclear.  Somehow, regime change has become the default setting for America foreign policy.  Let’s review the bidding: Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, central Africa, Syria, and now Eastern Europe.  The oft -tated goals of American policy abroad are “transition” or “stability.”  How is that stability thing working out?  Just a few examples reveal a litany of blowback, unintended consequences, and national incompetence.   

Iraq is now a sectarian basket case, Libya has become fratricidal Arab ghetto, Afghanistan is about to embrace the Taliban (again), Egypt is back to square one as a Janissary, and Syria has become a humanitarian nightmare.  The Obama administration is the last group on earth that should be complaining about misguided intervention.  When American diplomats and intelligence operatives are butchered in Benghazi, the best we get from the Oval Office and Foggy Bottom, quoting Mrs.  Clinton, is “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Hillary was out of town for a few years, but a bimbo legacy is with us still.  Just before Vladimir Putin drew a line in the sands of the Crimea, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, in a conversation with the US ambassador to the Ukraine, offered to bugger the European Union.  Specifically she said, “F*ck the EU.” Apparently, the EU was not being pushy enough with Russia, so Vicky took the wheel in Kiev.

How she and US Ambassador to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, might “f*ck” the EU was not part of that intercepted conversation.  If we take Vicky literally, you might have to look long and hard to find a real erection at Foggy Bottom these days.  The best that might be said of Ms.  Nuland to date is that she, like other Obama appointees, is a vulgar amateur.

How does a ranking State Department official with the highest security clearances not know that the Russians, NSA, and half of Europe would be monitoring an unencrypted telephone? Is Nuland trying to channel David Patraeus? She was clearly dispatched to Kiev to stir the pot in an internal dispute -- or maybe she was just in Eastern Europe to poke Putin in the eye.   

And why would a female diplomat use a rape metaphor to express her contempt for our “allies?” Surely, Vickie knows that F-U-C-K is an acronym for “forced unlawful carnal knowledge.” As long as the Assistant Secretary raised the subject, maybe Ms. Nuland’s genitals have more to do with her high office at State Department than talent or achievement. 

Nuland’s arrogance has a history.  She was the cutout between Susan Rice, Hillary and the Benghazi talking points, the much revised “intelligence” about diplomatic homicides in Libya.  Nuland was fingered as the State Department official who played Jim Clapper and insisted on revising the integrity of the “Intelligence” on the Libyan terror threat.  She was promoted by Obama for the Benghazi cover up.

And the “F*ck you!” fusillade is not Ms  Nuland’s first burlesque in the Ukraine.  After getting a pass from Congress on Benghazi, Nuland appeared in Kiev doling out rations and coaching western operatives dressed as  anti-regime dissidents, Ukrainian activists who may turn out to be pro-EU, anti-Semitic fascists.  To make matters even more bizarre, the American media, MSNBC and Rachael Maddow in particular, are now trying to blame the Ukraine fiasco on George Bush (sic).   

Well, now Vlad and the Spetsnaz have risen to the bait.  Unfortunately for the Obama White House, Putin is no flaccid diplomat, third world autocrat, or imam.   A line has been drawn in Crimea, just as lines were drawn in Chechnya and Georgia.  Unlike Barak Obama and John Kerry, when Putin draws a red line, he means it.  Vicky Nuland has picked an unnecessary fight with the Russians: your move, Mister President!

(For more polite analysis, Right and Left, of the rumble in the Ukraine see former Ambassador Jack Matlock’s blog or Professor Stephen Cohen’s coverage.)

G Murphy Donovan is the former Director of Research and Russian (nee Soviet) Studies at USAF Intelligence.  He writes about the politics of national security.