US public not blameless in Russia-Ukraine conflict

This is a hard column to write. Today Russia hived off part of Ukraine as if it were its garden with apple trees to pick off. Ukraine is an independent country; it is not Chechnya.

As a journalist and foreign policy practitioner, I am used to blaming governments, including my own, for global messes.

But in the case of Ukraine, I find myself realizing that the source of many of the problems besetting this fragile democracy is not only Russia or its president, Vladimir Putin. Part of the blame lies with us — the American people.