Subject: Re: Let’s See If This Pans Out for Putin
To me, this is akin to a boxer thinking Maybe if I just let the other guy punch me in the fact for 10 rounds he'll knock himself out, a battle plan literally adopted by no boxer ever.

Except it's not akin to that at all. Ukraine isn't just letting Russia attack them - they're fighting back.

The reason your analogy doesn't work is that the strategy is based on being able to hurt the other guy. You can't knock him out...but you're not expecting him to knock himself out (that's silly). Instead, you're hurting him and hurting him and punching him and damaging him constantly. You can't physically knock him out or force him out of the ring, but you can demonstrate that he'll never knock you out either and that he'll never stop being hurt and damaged. And since he can leave the ring and you can't, he knows that you'll keep hurting and damaging him for as long as you have any resources - but he doesn't have to sit there and take it for no benefit.

If you want an analogy, it's like a defendant in a lawsuit drowning the plaintiff in paper, driving up their legal expenses and making sure it will be 7-8 years and millions of dollars in legal fees before they ever see a dime of recovery, in hopes that they'll drop the lawsuit or settle for a pittance. A strategy that happens all the time.

But if the West is serious about restoring order, about helping them regain their territory and make Russia pay for its naked aggression, then it's time to sh1t or get off the pot: the 3 year hold-on-by-the-fingernails strategy has been going on for...3 years. Do something else.

Why? Why do they have to do something else? This isn't Short Attention Span Theater - geopolitical conflicts, and yes even actual wars, very often take more than three years to win. If the West is serious about restoring order and helping them regain their territory and making Russia pay for its naked aggression, the fighting might have to last for more than three years! Not everything is easy! Not everything is quick! When people are terrible and cruel and aggressive and violent, sometimes it takes years and years of sacrifice and commitment and resolve in order to beat the bad people.

The Soviets were in Afghanistan for 10 years. Is Europe ready to sentence them to 7 more years of this?

No one's sentencing them to anything. The Ukrainians want to defend their country from invaders. Like almost every people on earth would probably do. So as long as they are willing to keep fighting to undo the evil that the Russians have perpetrated, the Europeans are willing to aid them in their fight. Because if they are able to keep fighting, eventually they will prevail. The Ukrainians know that, the Europeans know that, and most American leaders know that as well. So as long as the Ukrainians keep fighting, we should keep supporting them with resources.