[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

Well unfortunately, while I can see your point, as has been mentioned many times throughout this thread, there is a 'long game' that has to be considered here as well.

We all want this war to stop. But not at the expense of essentially just setting Russia up to just do it again 10-20 years down the road.

I think the 'Powers that Be' arent just looking at ending this War, but also have an eye to preventing the almost-inevitable future one.

Western/NATO powers and Ukraine overall just want stability and peace in the region.

So unfortunately its just not as simple as stopping 'this' War because as we've seen, the Russians, given the opportunity, will almost certainly try again. So they're swallowing some very serious short-term pain in exchange for hopefully some exceptionally long-term gain.

And yes, I think we all understand that the Ukrainian people are the ones doing most of the swallowing of that pain. And as much as that really sucks, they've proven to be a tough bunch of bastards, hopefully for the prospect of long-term peace they can take it just a little longer.

I dont like it any more than anyone else.

Whatever agreement is made to end the war should include unconditional NATO protection of Ukraine. Any new attack = no fly zone or more.