Ok, I've been thinking about what Helgo said: that this whole situation changed his politics, generally showing him the need for a strong defense. I realized I've been through something similar: three years ago, even after Georgia, I would have advocated disbanding the Belgian army and spending the money on hookers, social services and lobbying for a European army. Now, I think we need a strong defense to protect our allies from Russia (hopefully through deterrence rather than through actually having to fight), and I say stupidly emotional stuff about risking my life for the Fatherland European Union.
In hindsight, the 1991-2014 period was probably the best period for a small European country like Belgium, from a geopolitical point of view. With the collapse of the USSR, we didn't have to worry about being turned into a nuclear battlefield by the US and the USSR. Most of Europe was either in, or lining up to join the "ever closer Union".
Sure, countries still had their national interests, but now they were defended by long-winded speeches about the composition of sausages and legal memos the size of a Tolstoy novel about what is the right curvature for a cucumber. For the first time in history since pretty much forever, Europe was at peace.
And just as we were settling in this life of decadent sex, smelly protected cheese and looking down on the Americans, Russia come barging in. Suddenly, we have a country that doesn't play by the rules the rest of us respect, that is willing to use force to further its national interest within Europe.
I don't think Putin is a bloodthirsty reincarnation of Hitler that want to turn the whole world into a big Putinstan. I don't think he is an irrational madman. But by using force to get what he wanted, he broke a taboo and made Europe a more dangerous, less pleasant place.
For starters, we now need to take our defense seriously. The only way to make sure Putin won't try anything in Latvia or Lithuania is to make sure he knows it won't work. And those are billions of defense spending we could spend on education or research or French self-consciously intellectual movies about the life of gays muslims in the banlieues.
Secondly, it greatly increase the possibility of war. Real, nasty war, in which thousands of people like me would end up shooting at thousands of people like Knit Tie. Sure, no one, Putin included, wants a big war in the EU. But then, no one wanted WWI either. The fact is that in a situation like pre-WWI Europe, where everyone is armed to the teeth and watching, all it take is one spark, one misunderstanding to create a big war. By disregarding the post-1991 state of international order in Europe, Putin put us all closer to such a situation, putting us all in danger. And that, more than an interest in Ukraine, is why I am worried about Russia's recent actions.