Great read! To expand on that, the more the war rages on the greater the instability in the region going forward (unlike you, sorry, I don't see Putin winning whatever he thinks there is to win). You'd think we would have learned our lesson in Iraq. I believe that if the U.S. left the Iraqi military intact Irag might have become a success story. Instead, who will argue Iraq is better today?

Kicking Russia quickly and decisively out of Ukraine is better for everyone, including Russia. n the end, Russia would have won a moral victory because the world would try to take it more seriously (fearing another invasion).

Anyway, great read! I wanted to disagree with a lot of it but couldn't ;)