Prior to my marrying my high school sweetheart, my older brother, Dana, offered this advice. “Training a wife is like training a dog.” I would have completely ignored his wisdom because at the time he was a rider in our mountain cow camps, so was on the path to perpetual bachelordom. However, he did have a very well trained dog, Cody, so he just might have an inside angle to a good marriage. Over the years I have successfully trained several dogs, but the outcome in training the trophy wife is yet to be determined. The fact she has never left me to ride for some other brand is testament to my soft approach to the training process. If Druann ever reads this, she will kill me, so I’ll focus on dogs in the remaining column.

To be the top dog, the number one rule is never give a command you are unable or unwilling to immediately enforce. If you do not have control over your canine while he is on a leash, it is foolish to think you will control him when he is sprinting through the brush. I painfully remember several pheasant hunts ruined by dog owners unfamiliar with rule number one. Here was the scene: We parked our pickups on the edge of an un-harvested grain field stuffed with rooster pheasants. My friend opened the two kennels in his rig and his two professionally trained Labrador Retrievers rocketed to freedom. At speeds faster than a shotgun blast, both dogs ripped into the field and began flushing pheasants. The owner chased them screaming the command “kennel, kennel” as if he fully expected the dogs to suddenly have an epiphany upon hearing his voice and return to the pickup. They never did. As dozens upon dozens of roosters safely took flight over the far horizon, I quietly banged my head on the hood of my pickup wondering why I kept subjecting myself to this insanity. This same rule regarding the senselessness of issuing commands you have no ability, or intentions, to enforce also exists in politics; especially in the international theatre, so I will jump to my point.

Once again, America finds herself negotiating from a position of weakness, figuratively screaming “kennel, kennel” to foreign entities deaf to empty threats. No longer are we the world’s sole super power, so third rate dictators thumb their noses at President Obama while he draws meaningless lines in the sand. Seizing the golden opportunity of America’s pacifist ineptness, Russia recently invaded Ukraine; a scene glaringly similar to their invasion of Afghanistan in 1980. Those were the Carter years; another time where America wielded the sword and shield of appeasement. Interestingly, the Olympics served as a stage prop in both 1980 and today in 2014. With the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter called for a boycott of the Summer Games to be held in Moscow and 62 countries honored his request. Learning from history, Putin postponed invading Ukraine until after the closing of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Should we militarily engage in Ukraine? I think not, but our options are few at this point. Would things have been different today on the world stage had on September 11, 2012, President Obama launched a full force military rescue on Benghazi when Ambassador Stevens came under attack? Absolutely! Had the terrorists been sent straight to the gates of hell compliments of American firepower the entire world would realize we will enforce any command, anytime and anywhere on the face of the earth. Instead we let the desperate, final SOS call from two of America’s finest fall on deaf ears all while officials in Washington DC concocted an elaborate ruse this situation was due to an anti-Muslim video. When you couple the blame-America-first attitude of this administration with the March 26, 2012 off-mike whisper from President Obama to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to “tell Vladimir I will be more flexible” after winning re-election, is it any wonder the Russians view the United States as a paper tiger? Just like the post-Carter era, America so needs a principled leader who truly loves our country.