Thanks, Francesco. I always appreciate your take on things, even (especially?) when it's different than mine.

For me, it's a little too personal for me to dismiss my interpretation to media influence. My media in this case has been personal, gut level discussions on Zoom with people who are affected by Putin's behavior, which is, simply put, psychopathic. When you're in a Zoom call with a woman who is literally on the run from Putin's tanks, with a child on her knee, that has a lot more power to me than anything Wolf Blitzer has to say.

I would argue it is easy for someone in Western Europe to say to a Ukrainian, "Just fork over your land if Russia wants it."

This is not the opinion of people who live there, whether they are Russian or Ukrianian. Most of the Russians there, as I have been told, were perfectly happy living in an indepedent Ukraine, not because Ukraine was perfect (its own imperfections prior to the invasion are pretty well-documented) but because they were relatively free and could live what you might call European lives.

Would you want to live under Putin's government? I kind of doubt it.

Most would rather live under an imperfect and sometimes dysfunctional Ukrainian and still be able to speak their minds than live under Putin.

I think Biden has done a pretty good job of managing this given the severity. It's a balancing act, and he's avoided boots on the ground and sending weapons that can reach into Russian territory. The U.S. has been careful to send limited range artillery, even though the Ukrainians have been begging for longer range artillery and fighter jets.

I agree that the American military is always looking for new ways to jump into a war zone - as I made clear in this story, but I don't think this is really one of those occasions. The U.S. military would rather fight its own war and not use a dangerous proxy such as this. They will be quite happy when this is over so they can find one.