why wasn’t a diplomatic pause an option to pursue a possible deescalation when this thing started to heat up a few months ago. Why did the U.S. refuse to engage with Russia and treat them as equals? 

Perhaps talking with partners in a strong diplomatic push effort with Russia could have at least delayed this.  

I see a lot of arrogance on the part of the U.S. in the way they handled this, by refusing to address the issues and concerns Russia has been raising for years.

When it became evident that Russia really was going to invade, it seems that pursuing back door channels to convince Russia to take a different route might have been an option.

When it became evident that we were not going to fulfill our promise to protect Ukraine way back in 2014, we should have pursued another route, because Russia called our bluff and we did nothing. After that, it might have been time to take a different position. 

Was allowing the the people in areas of Ukraine that have the strong historical, ethnic,  cultural ties, and who are sympathetic to Russia, to hold a referendum to pursue independence an option?

If they chose independence at the time, Ukraine would have lost a small portion of their territory, minus the loss of life and destruction they have experienced since deciding instead of to go up militarily against the Russian juggernaut. 

Now they have to contend with losing more territory that will be even more difficult to get back from Russia. 

What about the idea of Ukraine being a neutral country? Why was that even off the table? 

We strung Ukraine along for over two decades giving them a false sense of security. It is clear now that we were never going to back them up in the time of crisis, so as silly as neutrality seems; it may have been the better alternative.

Ukraine could have been light years ahead of where they are today.

So there is a lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda said in these statements. What do we do now?

What does “victory” look like for Ukraine and the United States? Is continuing to engage Russia militarily the best choice? We know how World War Two started when Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and it led to a major conflation of small tinders that went untreated for years across the continent.

 It seems that we are not even considering the possibility of this thing escalating to a point that could trigger something much worse, much more undesirable, and something for which we are not prepared. 

Russia is not going to come out of this unscathed. Apart from the losses they have already suffered, they now have to contend with the fact that Finland which shares a 1300 KM border with Russia is now a part of NATO, and Sweden which has always refused the idea of joining NATO, will now be members of NATO.

They now hav to deal with that reality even though, they will succeed in keeping NATO off the border they share with Ukraine.

So what now? We can all agree that Russia is the villain in all of this, but to deny that we contributed to the fiasco that now exists means that we will learn nothing from it. 

Acknowledging our role in all of this is a good place to start, then maybe making an effort to bring all of the sides together to find real solutions could get us on the road to peace.

While we are at it, the United States should stop giving other nations false hope, and stop making promises we do not intend to keep. We should stop being so flippant about these security accords that we sign. Every time the U.S. fails to live up to the obligations the country agrees to, it sends a message to the world that America no longer sticks to their word. America loses a little more of it’s prestige in the world and we embolden our adversaries.