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Now in a broader context. Why should any president risk W111 over Ukraine?
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My willingness to do that is starkly limited, because WWIII is really overwhelmingly terrible. It's probably unpopular to say so, but it's much much worse than Russia conquering Ukraine.
That said, Putin doesn't really want to risk WWIII either, so lines can be drawn and some things can be done. But one must be careful. Get into an escalation spiral and things could go totally wrong.
The big danger is if Putin really feels existentially and immediately threatened, and doesn't see an effective response. He becomes unpredictable then.