WASHINGTON - Maine Sen. Angus King told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he is worried about calls to provide arms to Ukraine to fight Russian-backed rebels in part of that country.
King said that might be just the reaction that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to see.
"Putin probably wouldn't mind a manageable little war in Ukraine right now to take the people's minds off the domestic problems," King said. "Margaret Thatcher's approval rating the day before the Falklands war was 23 percent, two weeks later it was 70 percent."
King said he is very aware of the historical analogies being drawn to the situation. He said some believe early action by European nations might have stopped Hitler and World War II.
Others point to the bumbling start of World War I, where a small conflict that could have been contained turned into a world war.
