President Barack Obama calling Russian President Vladimir Putin over the conflict in Ukraine was like a "a poor, desperate, jilted girlfriend with a desperate call to the boyfriend begging him come back," Lt. Col. Ralph Peters said Friday.
"Make no mistake, Putin's the guy in this relationship," Peters told "America's Newsroom" on Fox News.
The crisis in Ukraine escalated as the strategic region of Crimea was overtaken with thousands of troops during the last week. The invasion followed the uprising in Ukraine last month that ousted President Victor Yanukovych.
The unmarked troops in Crimea are thought to be Russian, despite denials by Putin. Peters, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, claimed Crimea was now in Russia's hands, because Putin "does not have a reverse gear."
Obama's approach to resolve the situation through diplomatic means "exploded in his face," Peters said. He said Putin was laughing, while the president was "begging Putin to come back to the fold."
Peters claimed economic sanctions would not move Putin to retreat. He said what would get his attention would be if Obama renounced the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty the United States negotiated with the former Soviet Union in 1991.
"That would get Putin's attention, because Putin knows the paradigm from the Reagan years when America was strong, and it broke the Soviet Union," he said, referring to the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan.
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