Unless the tyrants have a firm grip on their domestic issues and are executing a highly kinetic attack abroad. Then the sanctions are merely sand being thrown i

Unless the tyrants have a firm grip on their domestic issues and are executing a highly kinetic attack abroad. Then the sanctions are merely sand being thrown in the face, with hope of maybe blunting the short-term impact. There was no diplomatic solution here. For 20+ years the West has been negotiating. Even delivering what was necessary for an economic boom to the other side in the 00’s-10’s. But there was never any good faith from the other side I don’t think: only a cynical belief that the West is actually just run by tyrants who run it all from the shadows. That the West is in a position to sell off independent countries, and that it is in control of it’s own “sphere of influence”. This is where whatabout arguments fail imo. They don’t work when you realize that the “West” is a distributed network and no one is in “charge”. Politicians only uphold principles as far as they need to while juggling other parts of their individual brands. I think it would be a deeper philosophical topic whether keeping “peace” is the only goal worth pursuing.