I'm reading a lot of saber rattling but no clear "this is what we should do" - if you want war just say it - I do not.
He already told his advisors he was doing it. He wanted to during his term, but they convinced him to wait. He said he would do it in his second term. Thankfully he didn't win.
I do not want war. I would support supplying U.S. jets to Ukraine if they can use them or helping move the Soviet era jets from Poland to Ukraine. I'm also in favor of establishing a no-fly zone to help the Ukraine provided that it is coordinated with allies. I don't think most people want war, but there are a couple of factors. Putin is expansionistic and will continue invading other nations. If there is a point when we will have to draw a line and show him that the West will not accept is continued invasions and military aggression, why wait and sacrifice one or more nations before making that stand. Why not make the stand now? The other one is that the only way to discourage Putin from making more military invasions is to show him that we won't cave in to his wishes and demands. We need put our foot down and make our own demands. Show him that he doesn't hold all of the cards.
More likely, he wouldn't want to do while he had a friendly US president in power. Putin basically began planning this invasion as soon as Trump lost.
No one knowns that he would continue invading other nations. Thus far he has not attacked a NATO plane, base, troop, or city. So where does he go next? Finland? I doubt it. That line is NATO - that is why it exists. We've already drawn the line. We've already decided to where to make out stand. That is the purpose of a defensive alliance. And we've already done much to punish Russia for doing what they did. And what does that mean? War with Russia? Most people in America and Europe don't want that. And you can't tell me a no fly zone isn't war with Russia. It is. We will be shooting at Russians and Russians will be shooting at us. We've implemented sanctions so we havent' done nothing. We didn't cave to his wishes. We are arming the Ukrainians as best as we humanely can.
By definition, NATO is not going to get involved unless attacked. So NATO is out. As for each individual country, Biden already says absolutely no boot on the ground. Europe is similar. It's not a belief, there are already statements made that the USA and Western Europe will not get into a direct fight with Russia. He cares about himself and Russia overall. Isolation and degradation of military and technology is something he doesn't want. It's possible but it's going to be harder for a free nation to back off sanctions (they never backed off the 2014 sanctions - even Trump didn't t do that). Politics at home will drive that. There is also the worldwide private sectors at work here that free nation do not control. He has very little control over private entities. His out might be China. Stop at what? Do you mean after Ukraine (good luck with after Ukraine), continue onto to NATO? Yea, good luck with that. Yes, he's evil and is a murderer. He will flatten Ukraine if necessary to get what he wants. If he does that, he's sealed himself and his country off forever and any remaining Ukrainian will never stop fighting. You would think him being evil is why you need to be extra cautious about him holding massive nuke power. I don't think he goes that far ever, but as I said before, we have a build-in mass extinction plan and while no one would ever intend to use it, it literally takes just one wrong move with 15min to spare. Appeasing is not fighting a proxy war, not fighting an economic war, not fighting for isolation, not protecting every inch of NATO. Some do advocate for that. Not many though. What would you want to happen? US declares war on Russia and engage? Something else?
Russia should be made to rebuild Ukraine with the way they are conducting their WWII-style campaign of destroying cities. I wouldn't alleviate sanctions at the conclusion of the war unless war reparations are part of the deal. Russia destroys Ukraine...and we're going to pay to rebuild it? F*ck that! Seize that money and sell those oligarch yachts.
I definitely do not want war but I fear we might fight one anyway. My view has been that we should do as much as we can for Ukraine but stop short of actively getting militarily involved and that does mean holding off on a no-fly zone. I am for getting the Ukrainians those planes but admit I don't really have a good idea how that can be done easily. The plight of the Ukrainians is terrible and something we should all condemn. I don't blame Zelensky and other Ukrainians pleading for a no-fly zone and more. They are facing an existential crisis. The risks and uncertainty of anything we do though is very high and whether war is inevitable or not I would rather not do anything to hasten it. The bright line has to be NATO. That is what decades of US agreements and policy are. I really really hope that bright line is never crossed or even tested.
Question- if Russia uses chemical or other biological weapons in Ukraine, where directly or as part of a false flag operation, should NATO/EU/US (in whatever combination) step in? It was Obama's redline in Syria, but nothing came of it. do we learn from that, or repeat it?
They already seized over 300 billion in assets from the Russian national bank. That will be the starting point for the rebuild of Ukraine.
