Former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo faced an angry Senate panel led by "NeverTrump Bob" Corker (R-TN) and "Sleazy Bob" Menendez (D-NJ) today and gave less than satisfactory answers (according to The Two Bobs) about Trump's private meeting with Evil Undemocratic Dictator Vladimir Putin (77% re-election win in 2018). Comments by The Two Bobs are best characterized as "Wah!! You're a big mean poopy-pants!!"

Also revealed during the testimony was Pompeo's unwavering support for returning Crimea to Ukraine. You'll recall that Crimean voters approved annexation by Russia in 2014 by an overwhelming 95.5% vote. Of course, there's "democracy" and then there's "democracy the US approves of".

An often-defensive Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo struggled Wednesday to explain President Trump’s often confusing and secretive handling of foreign policy as senators demanded details about the president’s conversations last week with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

He also unveiled a Crimea Declaration that repeated U.S. condemnation of Russia’s 2014 attacks on Ukraine and its invasion and annexation of Crimea, and demanded [with a straight face?] Putin respect international boundaries.

LA Times: Pompeo firmly opposes Russian claims on Crimea and Ukraine, but struggles to explain Trump

Of course, Crimea was PART of Russia from 1783 until Khrushchev handed it over to his native Ukraine (then part of the USSR) in 1954 with assurances the Soviet naval base located there would remain available to the USSR. In 1991, Crimea held a referendum to become an autonomous republic and the Ukrainian government in Kiev quickly deposed the democratically elected Crimean president and dissolved the legislature. After the 2014 US sponsored coup in Ukraine, of course, Russia took Crimea back, much to the consternation of the US and other freedom loving nations.

But this is not the first time the US has staunchly defended the freedom of nations bordering Russia.

“As we did in the Welles Declaration in 1940, the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin’s claim of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law … [T]he United States rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored,” Pompeo said in a statement.

The Atlantic: The Roots of Pompeo’s Declaration in Support of Crimea

What is the Welles Declaration? In 1940, the USSR annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three countries the USSR feared would be used by Adolph Hitler as a staging ground for invasion. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who at the time was criticized as soft on the Soviets (hmmm, an early version of Russiagate?), was instrumental in drafting the Welles Declaration, which among other gems, contains this heartwarming statement of US love for international law and norms:

The people of the United States are opposed to predatory activities no matter whether they are carried on by the use of force or by the threat of force. They are likewise opposed to any form of intervention on the part of one state, however powerful, in the domestic concerns of any other sovereign state, however weak.

Ibid.

Doesn't that just warm the cockles of your heart? Assuming you tune out any pesky memories you may have about Iran, Guatemala, Congo, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Brazil, Chile, Grenada, Nicaragua, Iraq, Libya, Syria and dozens of other nations upon which the United States has used force or threat of force against and/or intervened in their domestic concerns. Oh, and please forget all about our invasion of Russia in 1918.

As usual, it's do as we say, not as we do. Why? Because we're the world's sole superpower and the rest of the world can just STFU.