It now seems that the incoming US Defence Carter Ashton Carter will advise the Obama Administration to arm Ukraine.

In my view this a good idea but just doesn't go far enough- what Ukraine needs to be advised to do is to not just sign up to the International Criminal Court(as the PA did in January) but to ask the Court to investigate and if need be indict Vladimir Putin and his senior henchmen on charges of waging "aggressive war" again it. The prospect of being pursued for the rest of their lives and possibly ending up in the dock at the Hague based court should give pause to the "little green men" in Ukraine( who re widely regarded as official Russian troops- with the exception of Putin's "understanders"- read "useful idiots" in the West such as Lindsey German of the Stop The War Coalition, husband and wife Stephen Cohen and Katrina van den Heuvel on the Left, or paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, UKIP leader Nigel Farage on the Right, or columnist Mary Dejevsky whom I am not certain is on either side.)

My fellow countryman Dr Johnson once observed"that when a man knows he will be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind beautifully"- the prospect of becoming a virtual pariah( like Sudanese President Omar al Bashir) should concentrate if not Putin's- then at least the minds of his supporters- wonderfully.

Anybody think as I do? After all if it's good enough to advocate George W.Bush and Tony Blair's prosecution by the ICC for their "regime change in Iraq" then why not Vladimir Putin???

Terry