I agree about many things, but one thing I diverge on for many is Ukraine. I can’t see it as anything less than finally stopping Vlad, finally…
We had a lot of foolish ideas where people thought letting Vlad invade a neighbor wasn’t so bad. Chechnya? Georgia? However lets be honest, that behavior just emboldened him like it emboldened another mid-20th century dictator.
As long as the Ukrainian people want to fight for a free Ukraine, I’ll pay taxes to give them weapons. Why? Hopefully bloody Russia’s nose enough that he can’t win. Bonus if Vlad has to run and hide, or ends up going to trial.
Also international freedom of navigation, which we do for a good reason or dictators / regimes would cut off major sections of the world in the air or on the ocean… think China.
Finally we keep fearing Russia… we shouldn’t. They can’t afford bullet resistant vest because, SURVEY SAYS!, the oligarchs looted the military. As a frame of reference, the abhorrent nuclear weapons the world builds are the most expensive and tricky weapons to build. They are also the most expensive and tricky weapons to maintain. Maintenance on nuclear weapons is INSANELY expensive.
At this point, given what Russia is putting into the Ukrainian war, I doubt they have a nuclear weapon that could function as more than a dirty bomb. Horrific? Absolutely, but not MAD and (to be fair) if Vlad does try to launch Xi will probably nuke him out of spite.