Pound The Resistance.

(1) Biden allowed Ukraine to fire US missiles into Russia, which I understand to require significant targeting and operations support from the US. So, basically, the United States fired a bunch of missiles into Russia.

(2) Russia responded by threatening nuclear retaliation, and launching a (non-nuclear) ICBM into Ukraine. I understand this is the first time that an ICBM has been used in combat. (I also understand that Russia specifically threatened to use nukes against Ukraine.)

(3) Nordic countries have responded (wisely) by preparing for war with Russia.

You cannot point to (3) in isolation and claim it as evidence that Russia really does intend to invade NATO countries. This sort of thinking is how calamities begin.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14100561/Nordic-nations-preparing-nuclear-war-Russia.html
“How Nordic nations are preparing for nuclear Armageddon: Norwegians are told to stock up on iodine, Swedes are given bomb shelter guide and Finns are reminded of ‘defence obligation’ amid growing risk of war with Russia”

Problem with regard to Putin. If he thinks–and what he thinks is up to him–that he “wins” whatever the end of the war looks like, there will be no nukes. And he thinks he prevailed. And that the cost was worth it. And he will think he can do it again and prevail again and….eventually, somebody says, This can’t go on…. So maybe we’re evacuating the last loyal Norwegians out of Narvik or something. And then, it has to stop.
So maybe then we get nukes.

That was one of the reasons for NATO’s massive conventional presence in Europe. Not a chance, buddy. Don’t even think it. Worked.

The tricky part will be convincing Putin–and nobody else’s opinion matters–that he lost in Ukraine and it’s not worth trying something else someplace else and…not triggering nukes.

Probably, and I say this without being a combination of Caesar, Napoleon, Patton, and…Alexander, the most likely way to accomplish this is to grind out a stalemate in Ukraine until the cost is too much for Putin and such of his advisors as have not been defenestrated. And they have to just…stop. What Putin thinks of his personal fate in that circumstance is part of the equation.

Good points… tho some commenter suggested YMMV to me a while back, and I used it here.

Our elites have absolutely not prepared the American public for the kinds of sacrifices in blood and treasure that would have to be made if the US went to war with Russia, nor have they obtained consent.

Yeah, the ‘Nanny State‘ concept of both the Republican & Democratic parties is probably my #2 reason for not joining either. #1 would be they are both *BIG GOVT* supporters, but they each just want to use the power of *BIG GOVT* differently – to cram their beliefs down the throats of others.

War suks—no doubt:

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Huh, didn’t realize that was a biblical quote…anyway, America is probably due for another war. Humans are natural born killers, and war/conflicts has been in their nature since the beginning.

Ditto on the Huh, and may have just found my #3 reason for not joining either REP or DEM parties. Their ‘War on Mother Nature‘…

(1) One man’s “wait until your enemy hits you first” is another man’s “keep goading your enemy until it starts the war that you’re too chicken#### to start yourself.” The public will notice.

(2) It’s hard to square “Ukraine has never asked America to provide “Boots on the Ground” with your first point. It’s a red herring. No one is suggesting that Ukraine will request US troops, or that the US will volunteer them (although Le Monde reported yesterday that the UK and France are considering doing just that). The issue is whether US activities in Ukraine goad Russia into attacking US interests directly, which would result in a US response.

(3) Whether you like it or not, nuclear weapons do (or at least should) change the calculations. This is why we work so hard at non-proliferation, or should. (Gee, thanks Obama.) It’s not about fear, or at not about unreasonable fear. Nuclear war is worse than Russia taking Donbas and Crimea. Nuclear war is worse than Russia using Ukraine as a buffer state between itself and NATO. If Putin was Hitler 2.0, bent on building a neo-Russian empire by gobbling up independent countries in Europe and massacring the native populations, then maybe nuclear war might be worth it. But that’s not the situation we’re in. Hand-waving about how we can’t give in to nuclear blackmail doesn’t make a nuclear exchange any less devastating for humanity. In a perfect world, nukes wouldn’t provide that kind of power. In the world that actually exists, they do. Pretending otherwise is dangerous.

(4) Our elites have absolutely not prepared the American public for the kinds of sacrifices in blood and treasure that would have to be made if the US went to war with Russia, nor have they obtained consent. (And that’s before you consider the potential of a nuclear exchange, which would be an extinction-level event for most of the American population.) Heck, we suffered a completely unprovoked attack on civilians in 2001, and the public soured on the resulting wars in a matter of a few years after the costs started adding up. Wait until people have to start sending their children off to eastern Europe or the far side of the Pacific as a result of a Russia/Ukraine war that all of our betters assured us would be won as soon as we imposed economic sanctions two years ago, and then assured us could be won easily without our involvement if we would just give the Ukrainians more weapons.

If there is a war, and any significant portion of the American public survives, the public mood towards the leaders who stumbled us into is going to be very, very harsh.