EXCLUSIVE–Lt. Col. Allen West: U.S. Demonstrating Weakness in Handling of Ukraine

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland–On March 7th, Breitbart News had the opportunity to talk with former Congressman (R-FL) Lt. Col. Allen West about the current crisis in Ukraine with Russia occupying Crimea.

We asked: “When we consider the situation in Ukraine, where people want to be free yet the U.S. shows very little interest in helping them, do you see certain faults in our approach to this crisis? Faults that you can explain or that you would correct?”

West responded: 

There are incredible faults… We’ve seen this before in history, we’ve seen this before from Vladimir Putin. When he is making the intimations that the greatest disappointment for him in the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union and he’s talking about protecting ethnic Russians, and he’s not done with Crimea–he’s going to continue on. 

This is about re-emergence of Putin’s influence. And if we don’t have the kind of resolute leadership that can stare this former KGB bully, bad-guy dictator in the face then we’re going to get more of this.

It will encourage others like China, and we’ll see more incursions in the South China Sea. Radical Islamism in the Middle East will continue to flourish, will be emboldened.

As I said earlier today, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel came out on Monday saying we were going cut our military and by the end of the week Russian troops–even though they’re not wearing a Russian flag–were in Crimea.

So what kind of message are [we] sending to the world?

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.