Careful what you wish for...unless you just wish to stay out of it...

In the Ukraine I think it is becoming evident that no one is getting what they bargained for.

Two days of chaos and violence in east and south-east Ukraine appeared on Saturday to be pushing the country ever closer to civil war, as the death toll rose to 42 following a military counter-offensive launched by authorities in Kiev against pro-Russia rebels. An angry crowd confronted police outside the trade union building in Odessa where dozens of pro-Russia activists died on Friday night in a blaze started during clashes with pro-Ukraine protesters. Fighting continued in the east as the Ukrainian army continued to oust pro-Russia rebels.

It's clear that when Ukrainians toppled the Russia-supported government several weeks ago, they thought they could keep Russia from intervening too strongly. That did not happen.

Meanwhile against all recent experience the Putin government seemed to think they could manage an old-fashioned intervention with limited pain. That is not likely to happen.

And, of course, there are are usual round of geniuses in the American Right that thought a well-placed threat of carpet bombing would do..."Oh if only we could get involved in a foreign civil war?" Stand by on that one.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]