Subject: Re: Let’s See If This Pans Out for Putin
I'm willing to keep supply Ukraine with the guns and money they need for as long as they are willing to keep fighting.

It take three things to tango and you didn't include the dudes part.

I'm not willing to take economic measures that won't end the war. A massive, "us or them" sanction on India (one of our allies) isn't going to end the war. It will prolong it, because it will probably lead India to choose "them" rather than "us" - and if we force them to go wholeheartedly into that camp, it will force India to integrate more with the Russian economy than they do today. Right now they have economic relations with both Russia/China and the West - if we cut them off from the West, they'll have to increase their economic relations with Russa above where they are now.


This boils down to you not being willing to inflict the kind of economic damage on Putin that would put a stop to his being able to get the money *he* needs for guns and dudes. If you want to end the war then the pain level Russia is feeling needs to go up, dramatically.

You're not wiling to do that. Ergo, the war will grind on with the biggest loser being the Ukrainians.

No one's saying "don't try to impose more economic harm on Russia." We're saying that the specific thing Trump has tried to do with India is a dumb proposal.

That's great. I specifically asked about India AND China.
The current sanctions regime isn't imposing enough economic harm on Russia to affect what they're doing.

And the same for Russia. It lets them heal and re-arm - and rebuild their terribly depleted foreign currency reserves. And then they can just invade some more.


Perhaps. But there's now a security guarantee on the table, and the Ukrainians would have a potentially big upgrade in terms of lethality that the Russians wouldn't be able to match.

That's worse for Ukraine, because the West will have demonstrated that they're not willing to help Ukraine continue to inflict punishment on Russia's military.
That depends. If, during the lull period the Ukrainians choose to raise hell in the occupied territories they could do that.

If DJT can't abide the current situation in Ukraine today, then a U.S. security guarantee is worthless - if we're not willing to stand up for the Ukrainian military when all we're doing is sending guns and money, there's zero chance we're ever sending our own soldiers there (or genuinely committing to even the guns and money) when Putin starts the invasion again.

Which again begs the question: are YOU willing to

-Impose painful sanctions on Russia's business partners
-Involve US troops directly

It sounds like 'no' to both.