Yes, politicians love wag the dog wars; they love finding external enemies and diverting attention elsewhere. That said, Putin is doing exactly what Hitler did in Czechoslovakia in 1938 - stir up artificial, paid with Russian money discontent so that he can move troops in to "protect" ethnic Russians that are supposedly abused. Evidently, Crimea was not quite enough; the rest of the Ukraine, plus the Baltic republics would be a nice addition.
Is it America's problem? Not for a few years. But, look back at the history of the 20th century, and you can trace every major war to prior appeasement. Any reason that this one should be any different? Of course, had America been strong economically in the first place, with well-developed energy supplies, it could easily have supplied Europe, both Western and Eastern, with energy, cutting off Russia's primary income, and none of this would have happened. Of course, our Comrade President would never do anything like that.

Of course; they left the Soviet Union because they wanted to be free of it. Ironically, the concepts of communism and socialism are alive and well in America among the elites because they provide them the same benefits and accoutrements as monarchies did in the past. That is, within a monarchy, both the nobles and the plebeians believe that the social order is just and everyone is fairly happy without any guilt trips. In socialism and, ultimately, in communism, the elites, who are better than all others, have everything, but with every bite they take, they think of the malnourished. The malnourished, while not taking many bites, somehow believe that the future will be better. Thus, everyone is fairly happy…