Originally Posted by logtroll
Originally Posted by chunkstyle
Wars that are now viewed as mistakes but said to have ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’.
All too often with humans there are no good choices.
It’s clear in many cases that mistakes/bad choices were made in several recent U.S. wars, most obviously the invasion of Afghanistan on the pretext of “getting” Bin Laden via military might, and the even more stupid invasion of Iraq “just cuz” - a stunningly close parallel to Putin’s invading Ukraine (Project for a New American Century ring any bells?)

What the appropriate U.S. response to Putin’s actions should be is not so clear, and the three general choices available all have serious downsides - sanctions, full scale war, or let him take what he wants. Negotiations are a thought exercise only, given that Putin is an unapologetic aggressor with a goal of conquest - the forgone outcome would be #3 above.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller