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> * It sounds like politicians puffing up the actions they're willing to take.* I agree with that. Maybe I should have said that there is no other civilized re
by jonathanstrange 5y ago
> * It sounds like politicians puffing up the actions they're willing to take.*
I agree with that. Maybe I should have said that there is no other civilized response available than imposing heavy sanctions. Even a slightly weaker Russian military and some impact on Russian oligarchs may be better than nothing to prevent future misjudgments about the prospects of waging 19th Century territorial wars in the 21 Century.
- tablespoon 5y ago> Maybe I should have said that there is no other civilized response available than imposing heavy sanctions. That's kind of the problem, though. The catalog of "civilized responses" may not be up to the task of responding to these events, and being constrained to them prevents effective responses. > Even a slightly weaker Russian military and some impact on Russian oligarchs may be better than nothing to prevent future misjudgments about the prospects of waging 19th Century territorial wars in the 21 Century. Sometimes "better than nothing" rounds down to nothing. You might end up having more "19th Century territorial wars" because you let the war itself. IMHO, the only thing right now that has a realistic chance of preventing another one of these wars from happening is a military failure by Russia. Right now that depends on the Ukrainian state acting on its own without much support from Europe.