I feel like Putin's daring us to take it to WWIII and the world leaders are desperately trying to avoid that.

I just question the cost of not stopping Putin, now. If the plan is to let him take Ukraine provided he doesn't use certain munitions or strike certain targets, then he'll win.

It wont be short, and it will be bloody, but he'll win.

And then his sights are on what?
Hard to imagine it's not focused on how the West (US) has crippled his people out of hate for Russian culture.

Remember when Gorbachev came to the US in the '80's and refused to believe that the perfectly normal American grocery stores weren't absolutely staged to trick him into believing we could provide such a wealth and variety of foods everywhere.
When they control the propaganda, the real news stops reaching them.
sadface