“Reacting” may be too generous description. As much as I admire U.S. President Barack Obama for his strong points (there are some), making heads or tails out of his foreign policy theology would require special tools.

Here is a country  — Ukraine  — emerging from a successful, some would say glorious, revolutionary national triumph of democracy, applauded throughout most of the West, and at the same time practically abandoned by the world’s superpower, while the country’s territory is invaded by military force of a reactionary reborn Soviet-style empire.

Ukraine needs weapons, weapons, and weapons. Anti-aircraft weapons, anti-tank weapons. They are needed now, not after the next round of glorified sanctions following the imminent invasion of mainland Ukraine, when it will be too late, even if Russian invasion meets stiff resistance.

Obama already has been widely criticized for inaction and for defining himself by stressing repeatedly that “military action is off the table.” 

After the US and Britain had shamelessly declined to stand by their presumed commitment to honor the Budapest Memorandum (to defend Ukraine’s independence after it gave up its nukes in 1994), Ukraine’s government formally asked for help by providing meaningful weapons for its mobilized army reserves and the new National Guard. According to the Kyiv Post (March 22), Washington is “reviewing the request.”

Too many Western politicians seen to have lost the mental track of understanding that the United States is still a superpower, and still has ways and means, military if necessary, to confine Vladimir Putin into his KGB cubicle rather than letting him excel at his marauding dance.

U.S. Senator John McCain, in his March 15 visit to Kyiv, reached the same conclusion that weapons assistance is urgently needed and will try to convince President Obama. According to McCain, they could be delivered quickly in large numbers. The prevailing political opinion in the Congress is not clear. In the media, David Brooks, The New York Times columnist predicted on the PBS News Hour, March 21 that “arming Ukraine will become subject of debate”. Not much urgency there.

Remarkably, Ukraine’s politicians in Kyiv now seem to be doing nearly everything right, unlike it was in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution nearly 10 years ago. The emergence of self-defense groups at Maidan, which were a big factor in the people’s victory and for that reason are now maligned by the Kremlin’s trumpets, has become a major driving force for the new Ukraine. Vitalyi Klitschko’s words in December 2013 come to mind: “Ukraine must change or perish.”

Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk act like the right choice for the job in this hour of a historic revolution, come what may. 

Boris Danik is a retired Ukrainian-American living in North Caldwell, New Jersey.