What now?

The people of Crimea have spoken, and 97% of them voted to become independent from Ukraine and join the Russian confederation.

Or have they?   Reports say that opponents stayed home and boycotted the referendum.   Other questions abound:

1.   Do the people and government of Crimea have the power to make this decision;  or is this an illegal act, as President Obama and others say?

2.  How could the referendum be considered legitimate when, essentially, it occurred at Russian gunpoint?   Having armed troops without insignia on their uniforms did not fool anyone.

3.  Will Russia now be emboldened to go after the larger Eastern region of Ukraine?

4.  How is this different from the way Hitler began to gobble up Europe in the late 1930s?

5.  How is this different from the way the Ukrainians overthrew their government and got rid of their president, who fled to Russia?

I don't know the answers.   But neither do Lindsey Graham and John McCain, who have many times over violated the once-held view that politics stops at the water's edge.   If we listened to them, we'd already be in war in several other countries.

Ralph