I am just a poor old peckerwood from South Texas but here is how I see it.

Putin is a strong man dictator who murders his rivals and dreams of a reunified Russian Empire. He committed atrocities in Chechnya and no one did shit. He took Crimea and even downed a commercial airliner and no one did anything. Well, that's not entirely true, they filed sanctions and those sanctions were working all right, maybe not enough teeth but it was what it was. Then comes Trump and all those sanctions were rolled back. This emboldened the strong man and he invaded Ukraine outright just like he did Chechnya. Painting NATO as the aggressor and claiming Nazis run Ukraine he invaded the country. He promised he wouldn't he even signed a treaty saying he wouldn't. Then he did. Where does it stop? Ukraine? Moldova? Finland? When does the world say "Enough, you can't do this." When Putin promised not to invade Ukraine the United States and some other NATO countries made a promise outside of NATO to defend Ukraine in the "unlikely" event Putin was a full-of-shit liar who fully intended to invade Ukraine as soon as possible. Guess what ends up he was a lying piece of shit and here we are. Now we spend $75 billion to help prop up the Ukrainians and they are holding back Russia, they may not be winning but they are causing a little "Vietnam" for Russia. With the Internet and the ubiquity of phones and cameras, the whole world sees apartments bombed and cities targeted, and the hold Putin has on Russia erodes.

Now World War II in Europe cost the United States on its own $2 trillion and 200k lives which would be the equivalent of about $30 trillion in 2024 money. So here we are. If left alone Putin intends to keep going, he has said it and he has shown his hand with the invasion of Ukraine even after promising he wouldn't. I don't see any outcome where he stops with Ukraine. Even if he dies the people set to inherit his empire share his goals. So now it becomes a numbers game for me. Spend $75 billion arming the Ukrainians or cut our losses and eventually spend $30 trillion and 200k+ lives fighting a war in Europe to stop Russian expansion into sovereign nations that don't want to be Russian. We could walk away, break our treaties, and abandon our obligations but then what? What would that say to China, where would that leave our allies in Asia? How would it affect trade around the world? What would the ramifications be to our daily lives? Cost of goods, fuel, electronics?

The US is not perfect, far from it but like it or not the biggest nuts in the world swing between these legs and any global conflict will be our fight so maybe we stop it cold in Ukraine...maybe we don't...it sure seems like world governments are hell-bent for war so IDK. We will see soon enough though so love your family be kind to your neighbors and live while the living is good because a storm is rising and in this modern day and age it's going to be bloody as shit.