Uh oh, let the games begin. Right Wing vs Left Wing. This thread will be short lived. Better get your jabs in quick if you're gonna.
We can pose and philosophize all we want, but the ONLY person that knows what Putin wants is Putin. We will sit in judgement of what he's done after he's done it, and then wonder why we didn't do something to prevent it. This isn't really a surprise. We knew Iraq would invade Kuwait. We let that happen, knowing it. And true to form, the left points at Trump and the right as the root of this incident. Ahem, how's your Prez doing? In less than one year in office, fuel prices have more than doubled. Be careful what you ask for, you may just get it.
The world has known this invasion was coming for MONTHS, and no one moved to help Ukraine, nor did Ukraine make any decisive or effective choices to avoid the bloodshed. Is it any wonder they're getting the @#$% kicked out of 'em and are screaming for help? Their military probably couldn't beat a good basketball team, so it will become another long-drawn-out guerilla war that will likely end up with the same thing that happened to Russia's forces the first time in Afghanistan. I think history will repeat itself, because Russia didn't learn anything the first time about fighting folks who are protecting their home. They finally just took their ball and went home. Ukraine has had 10 years to build and improve their military and choose an alliance while they were out from under Putin after he gave them the chance. Perhaps he's just proving his point, that he thinks he can rebuild the USSR. I don't think he'll have the internal support of the people that he needs. Yeah, a lot of 'em will go to Gulags, but he can't send 'em all.
Just playing devil's advocate, not really voicing my view of the situation.