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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025

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To punish Russia for this invasion, and deter future invasions by Russia and China. I think the bare minimum is to prevent Russia from being rewarded for their aggression. They should not receive any territory, and if possible they should lose territory. Ideally they should also be economically and militarily crippled, so we have one fewer adversary to deal with.

This cannot be accomplished without significant additional assistance, most definitely including US and/or European troops in theatre and on the front lines in large numbers. It is not clear it can be accomplished at all, without significant risk of going nuclear. The status quo ante can result in nothing better than a grinding forever war until something unpredictable changes (in favor of either side).

If you want a peace by agreement rather than by beating Russia outright, you're going to have to accept less than that. If you want to beat Russia outright, you're going to have to put considerably more in.

Maybe it's impossible, but I don't see the downside of trying. Even if Ukraine loses the war, funding them just means it will take longer and Russia's resources will be more depleted. If Russia is going to end up with more territory, at least we should make them suffer as much as possible for it.

You don't see the downside of keeping up a war of attrition? It's waste on a massive scale. Waste of resources, waste of life, waste of time. Sure, if you're a Ukranian and you don't want to live under Putin it's currently the best alternative, but for anyone who has more options it's a damned foolish one.

It's only a waste if you think Putin will stop there. If you think you will have to defend yourself against Russia at some point, then the sooner the better

If you think you're going to have to defend yourself against Russia at some point, you want more than to just keep grinding, unless there's no way to knock them back further.

If you are funding Ukraine, your resources are being depleted as well.