I enjoyed the article and all the responses, seeing logic in all of them — but none of them outlined possibilities or articulated variables that as a non-military, basically illiterate superficial reader of local newspaper I had not conjured up as possibilities in my mind. I know the old joke about “military intelligence” being an oxymoron. Nevertheless the stalemate generated until now has given western powers time to gather data, use machine intelligence, hold discussions, blah, blah. I hope someone has asked the Israeli army what Israel would do — a country targeted for annihilation for 70+ years formed in the aftermath of millions murdered by an insane regime, I assume they would have novel (probably forceful) ideas. I hope we have asked China their recommendation and kept communication with China open because take China ideas or not it seems to me to be helpful for the Chinese to know we are trying for a peaceful outcome. I have spent time with people who have spent time with V. Putin and they described him as a “thug” and that was the only time I heard such a visceral description from these same folks. I have listened to the Oliver Stone interviews which paint a different picture and I have read two biographies about V. Putin. I don’t know if there are any novel approaches. I’d have given Ukraine a bunch of jets to start with but that was an uninformed and irresponsible sentiment about the general situation not a knowledgeable and calculated decision with a clear endgame and % probabilities of outcomes. I think I’d propose to the world that the UN run elections in the Russian occupied areas as to stay with Ukraine or join Russia then divide along a north south line based on % of vote the way India and Pakistan were split. No one would like that idea. I don’t think Putin will use nuclear weapons as he is not in a good position — but he apparently is a good bluffer just like he bluffed the East German crowd from storming his KGB offices after the Berlin Wall fell.