Agreed. It's well past time the west was reminded what MAD really means- that their leaders are putting their lives on the line, and that of all of humanity as well.
I also hope it helps destroy America's favorite little ethnofascist state in the ME. But no hope there, Putin is actually very timid compared to his image in the west.
While I despise the Nazis in Ukraine, and I don't want to flatter Putin, I'm personally hoping his unwillingness to fight wars like the US does at the very least comes from some place of being rational and not criminally insane. Wars shouldn't play out like the Iraq war.
What lesson would that send to the west then other than to up the terror campaign and violence? Why does the west always get to up the ante and escalate? Why should other people always be the sane ones whereas the west always gets to do whatever it likes with the threat of greater violence looming over people's heads? I don't want Ukrainians to suffer, but at least just give Syria/ Lebanon some s300s, or send an aid convoy to Gaza to call Israel's bluff. There should be consequences to mass murdering people.
I hope Putin comes down hard on Ukraine's government, and those associated with it, but our government targeted infrastructure in Iraq; lots of people died because of lack of electricity and water and sewage processing plants. There should absolutely be consequences for mass murdering people, but I will agree with you that the better thing for Russia to do would be to better arm Syria and Lebanon.
I'm not saying Putin shouldn't retaliate, I just hope his choice doesn't target places that would be disastrous to civilians. Ironically I'd argue that if Putin fought this war like the US does, then most likely the Ukrainian people would demand that their government actually cooperate with Russia to bring the war to an end, but I just can't agree with harmful acts towards civilians to bring it about.
Also honestly Western countries don't care about the lives of civilians in Ukraine, and they definitely don't care about the lives of people in the middle east. I think perhaps the better option, and frankly with the best outcome, is to try and convince as many countries in the global South to cut ties with Western countries and reduce majorly their sale of oil to them, and especially preferably during winter to see if maybe that sends a message.
Yeah, I am not disagreeing with you to be honest. We are on the same side and I am replying out of emotion after witnessing a genocide for the past 6 months. Merely going after those responsible won't be enough of a warning and the west will just find new stooges. Some balance of power has to change. They have to take a big L somewhere and I hope for one, it is in Gaza. It is precisely because they don't care about Ukrainians that something consequential has to happen and my bias is that it happens to Israel.