Just in case the libs don't get it yet, Putin doesn't give a chit about anything what anybody thinks because he knows he can do this because he knows NO CURRENT LEADER has the balls to stop him.
Agreed. At what point does Putin have to listen to Russian citizens though? or restated: what can the Russian populace do to influence Putin?
You determined this with your extremely high IQ, we just need more BALLS and the world will do what we say?
Tribalism is one thing. It happens with both sides. But outright praising Putin, saying it's a great plan why didn't we think of it, etc, are 2 different things in my book. It could be considered splitting hairs & I get that.
Also full on "what are they going to do, kill me?" mode as well. If the reports of cancer and parkinsons are true, he doesn't have much time left.
Not sure what the US can do at this point outside of harsh sanctions. Military intervention will escalate to a lose-lose event. It is not about whether we can defeat Russia or not. Of course we can. It's about what kind of life would be left after our country has been pounded and destroyed. The US couldn't even handle a pandemic. Could you imagine trying to live through something 100 or 1000 times worse. Not to mention that we have to deal with two fronts. Russia expansion and China expansion. The world will be near 100% loss if military conflicts spread. Putin's biggest advantage is that he does not care about people or consequences while we do.
Putin is not a rational actor, he is a criminal and Russia under his 20 year reign has basically become a lawless mafia organized crime state. Has nothing to do with “having the balls” to stop him. Realistically aside from having NATO adopt Ukraine (rather than just supply them with arms), there is no policy of deterrence other than threat of sanctions and condemnation. Here’s the thing, while the line was not drawn at Ukraine, it is now absolutely hardened along the NATO allies. It’s possible Putin has gravely miscalculated here with this invasion. Though we need to see what happens if/when those sanctions hit. What happens to gas prices in Europe. What happens to energy prices in the U.S. It may be a matter of who blinks first, but guess what, if you are on the side of bitching about inflation you already blinked. You unwittingly expose our weakness against Putin.
This is a wake up call for NATO, countries have been underfunding it for some time. Before Trump came into office only 5 countries were meeting the required level of funding. The Only 5 Countries That Meet NATO's Defense Spending Requirements Now more countries are meeting the goal and with this Ukraine invasion, I would bet everyone will meet their requirement. NATO’s Financing Gap
