Sure, buddy. I’m sure you’ve got inside information on how a brutal dictator with roughly half the nuclear weapons on the planet will react if he thinks he’s going to lose power. I’m sure you think you’re right, but I don’t share your confidence on knowing what Putin will or won’t do. Nor do I share your confidence that what you or I might see as a “rational” decision will be shared by a brutal dictator who has been in power more than 20 years, and certainly has access to bomb-proof bunkers and resources that you and I don’t have.

I’m also not for supporting mass murderers by my inaction. That being said, “action” does not have to equal violence. Violence begets violence. 14,000 people had already been killed in the Ukrainian civil war starting in 2014 BEFORE Russia invaded. Threatening actions by the West for the last 30 years (particularly in the last 8) led Putin to take (to my mind) the irrational decision to invade Ukraine. Putin’s invasion is not excusable, but neither is the West’s provocations of Russia since the fall of the USSR.

The best solution is to sue for peace. We (the US) have no business or right to be sending weapons to Ukraine. More weapons being poured into Ukraine by the West will only result in more death of Ukrainians.

Your example of Syria is a bad one. Russia and Syria have been allies since the 1970s. Syria asked for Russia’s help in their civil war. The US is the invading force. The US attacked without a declaration of war, and without a UN mandate. The US is illegally occupying 1/3 of Syria. I’m no fan of Assad, but not liking a leader of another country doesn’t give us the right to try to overthrow a government.

Assad is also a brutal dictator, but Syria is a sovereign country recognized by the UN. The US sided with ISIS and Al Quaeda in Syria. We (the US) have no business or right to be sending weapons or troops to Syria.

[edit] typos