Thanks for the excellent analysis and your personalized background and touch to it.

I have co-workers in the Ukraine and every morning on our video call I wonder to myself if they're afraid. It's a pretty lousy situation for the regular folks who are caught in the middle of all this.

I realize that Putin thinks he needs to show his toughness but I do think the U.S. could back off a bit from the threat of getting Ukraine into NATO.

I doubt we'd be too happy if the Russians set up a military bloc consisting of Central America and Mexico. There IS such a thing as a sphere of influence. Many Ukrainians feel an affinity with Russia (many don't, as well), and like all problems, this one is fairly nuanced. Trying to impose our will is kind of stupid.

If Russia invades, they will have a mess on their hands. Probably years and years of rebellion and terrorism against them from within Ukraine. I am fairly confident that Putin has made that calculation.

Giving in a little to Putin is not appeasement. He's not Adolph Hitler. Biden should be giving Putin an olive branch of some kind. But he won't, because he'll be ripped by both the left and the right, neither of whom know the first thing about Russian history.