In my view that is a distinction without a meaningful difference. Completely disagree -- the decision to heed Russia's request and not issue the MAPs to George

In my view that is a distinction without a meaningful difference. Completely disagree -- the decision to heed Russia's request and not issue the MAPs to George and Ukraine in 2008 (where the matter has stayed ever since) was an important de-escalatory step and hugely significant. As Putin's sockpuppet Medvedev said at the time: "Reason has prevailed". The rest of the stuff about what might have happened had they been issued and accepted gets into the realm of hypotheticals, which is not my turf.