Back in the day when I still lived in the US and followed US sports, I disliked the Yankees. They had way more money than every other team, so they got the best players and won most of their games.

When I would watch a Yankees game (usually part of a game, because it was too depressing to watch it all) I marvelled at the skille of the Yankees players. I didn't want them to win, but it was clear that absent something very unexpected, the Yankees were going to win.

The same thing is happening in the Ukraine conflict. I don't want Russia to win, but I'm a realist. I see who has the advantages in manpower, equipment and position. It is Russia. That doesn't make me a fan of the totalitarian Russian regime. It just makes me a realist.

In the same vein, I'm not a fan of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But if something similar had happened in northern Mexico or southern Canada as happened in Ukraine between 2004 and 2022, the US would have done the same thing that Russia did.