ON BEING: PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA, BUT SHORT IN STATURE

The ICD-10 index of disease codes does not have a reference for "short man's disease." However, the Urban Dictionary defines it as, "an angry male of below average height who feels it necessary to act out in an attempt to gain respect and recognition from others and compensate for his abnormally short stature."  Also called "little man syndrome," no one in the world epitomizes this sickness more than 5' 5" (168 cm) Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

If he is not riding horseback in bare chest, he is playing with a tranquilized bear or tiger cub. Cameras always seem present to catch every second of action of this self-aware he-man. He pushes people around and expects to get away with it because he has always gotten away with it. Mr. Putin spent 16 years in the Soviet KGB where fear and punishment were used to move people, not tact and diplomacy.

Only four years old when Premier Nikita Khrushchev told Western Ambassadors that Russia would bury the West, Putin grew up in a nation that ruled a huge portion of the world.  To watch the Berlin Wall come down, and the subsequent breakup of Russia's empire, must have been humiliating.  He is no longer KGB, but now President of Russia. Finally, he has the power to take back what he thinks others gave away.

This little guy with a giant ego has read his Hitler history well.  Take small pieces of land, then announce to the world you are only protecting people who are ethnically your own. Under this premise he takes South Ossetia and Abkhazia, parts of Georgia, in 2008.  Now he has moved on the Ukraine to conquer Crimea. Just saving more of the Russian-speaking world, he proclaims.  He even uses "volunteer" forces to control the populace, just as Hitler did in 1938 in Czechoslovakia when he took the Sudetenland.

This egomaniac seems to be imbued with some of the worst traits of Stalin as well. He becomes friendly with pariahs like Iran and Syria if only to stick a finger in the eye of the West. Edward Snowden, secrets and all, is allowed to settle in Putin's homeland. He allows former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich exile in Russia while wanted by his countrymen for murder and for plundering the treasury.

Sixteen years in the KGB. President and/or Prime Minister of Russia since 1999.  He has overstayed his welcome. He has turned his country into a homophobic imperialist bully with no direction other than to stand as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Thugs rule Russia with impunity.

The U.S. should not send troops to the Ukraine. However, that does not mean we should do nothing. We should mobilize our forces, not for war, but to force him to move his forces to counter.

I would include carriers and large missile ships in this equation. Place vessels in the Sea of Okhotsk on Russia's east coast, in the East Siberian Sea on its northeast coast, the Barents Sea on it northwest coast, and the Black Sea at Mr. Putin's southwest border. This would remind this man with the Napoleon complex that he lacks the resources to project power like the United States and Europe. Make him move his forces all over Russia. Sometimes a bully needs someone to poke him just a little to get his attention. Russia should also be removed from the G8, removing him from a place where it appears he leads a major world player.

He will not go to war.  He will not push a button.  I believe he will see the error of his ways and back down.  We can give him an out with some dignity, as was done with Khrushchev, but stop Mr. Putin we must.

We should also reach out to his Premier, Dmitry Medvedev.  Ask him to take his friend aside and say politely, "Vlad, it is time to hit the road...don't forget your shirt."