What we think here individually is largely irrelevant since the political reality out there is crystal clear:
We as the West are not stopping Putin in Ukraine, and there is no political will or majority in any NATO country to do so. In the US, the latest surveys from reliable pollsters show somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans opposed to any course of action that would risk direct war with Russia.
Personally, I'd be willing to take a lot more risks. But I'm old and sick and have no children, so when it comes to nuclear mushrooms … hey, bucket list item. But no responsible leader can take that attitude.
There is a red line, but it runs along Ukraine's Western borders.
So instead, we are working to make Putin stop. That's a different game, but it's the only one there is. Remember that no nuclear power that lost a "small war" has ever actually been defeated; instead, they pack it in because costs and benefits are no longer worth the trouble. France in Algeria, the US in Vietnam, Russia and the US in Afghanistan, the British in Northern Ireland … always the same story.
We're trying for the same thing, just hopefully with a shorter timeline. Momentum is important. Because quite frankly, I don't trust the enthusiasm and focus of Western, particularly American audiences. This could drag on, and settle into a stalemate of sorts; hoping for regime change in Moscow may be futile. Ukraine could even end up as the Germany of the new Cold War, divided into a Russian and a Western part, a constant source of friction as boredom sets in.
