So, first, the invasion has already happened. So “not invading” isn’t an option any more.
Second, the USA by way of NATO has been antagonizing the “East” for… longer than I’ve been alive. Usually we just start one sided military conflicts in third world countries with such a lack of air power and anti-armor capability that our military just rolls through the country where the biggest loss of life and equipment on the USA’s side are after the occupation begins and the troops are just sitting around waiting to get sniped or drive near an IED.
It just so happened that antagonizing the second world country of Russia, thinking it was a third world country, finally wound up biting the ass of USA/NATO when Russia decided to invade Ukraine. You rattle your saber long enough and loud enough at a right wing government and eventually they’re going to pull out their sabre.
So, since nobody can unfuck this sheep, best course of action is probably to allow the Ukraine government to admit defeat and sue for peace instead of forcing them to keep trying to fight a war they can’t win (but military contractors will make mad money off of). They’ve lost a chunk of territory that will either stay Russian directly through open occupation or be Russian aligned autonomous states that will absolutely NEED to keep the Russian military around to help fight off the terrorist attacks either from Ukrainian actors or carried out by non-Ukrainian actors using Ukraine as the safe highway to get to Russia aligned states or Russia itself.
That Feeling When: You talk about butt plugs to a naked mole rat and it looks at you in total confusion.
As everybody knows, the average American’s excess savings are stored in the balls. And it now looks like, the balls have run dry.
Ukraine Plans Privatization to Help Fund War Effort… (archive link)
scratches chin
Keep the NATO funding just high enough to keep the war going but not so high that Ukraine stops trying to sell state assets to private enterprises but managing the spread and escalation of the conflict in such a way that private interests don’t instantly value the auctioned items as “worthless” so nobody bids.
That’s a lot of plates to spin.
Accidental Lovecraftian nightmare fuel right there.