No one is saying that, if he touches a NATO country NATO would be forced to intervene.

What people are saying is that no one wants to get nuked to save Ukraine and I'd be hard pressed to blame them.

This isn't Call of Duty

This is very unfortunate, but true. The reality is this: the window to deal with Putin in a non-confrontational manner has already closed, there are no 'good' options that do not carry a very hefty price tag in front of us right now, but people are - understandably - still having trouble adjusting to that reality.

But Putin - and Russia - are being dealt with, via international sanctions and being cut off from the world's economy. That's a big source of attrition. Russia is self-sufficient to a point and may still have (financial etc) ties with China, but it will hurt them badly.

But that's as far as it will go at this point. Russia invading Ukraine (again) has been universally declared a Dick Move, but since Ukraine is not an EU or NATO member and as far as I know there's no defense pacts either, there's nothing that they can do that would not be considered an unnecessary escalation.

If sanctions worked the first few times, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Why think it will work this time?

EDIT: of course, my opinions are shaped by being in non-nuke-equipped country in Europe, so depending on West's response this time, we're next. I'm sure it looks differently for someone sitting in New Jersey or Australia.

> But Putin - and Russia - are being dealt with, via international sanctions and being cut off from the world's economy.

Putin can be faulted for many things but not looking ahead isn't one of them and you can bet that he has priced this in already. If anything he is probably amazed at the lack of response.

> Russia invading Ukraine (again) has been universally declared a Dick Move, but since Ukraine is not an EU or NATO member and as far as I know there's no defense pacts either, there's nothing that they can do that would not be considered an unnecessary escalation.

Yes, there will be all kinds of justification for letting Ukraine burn, this one will be near top of the list for sure.

there's a notable difference in confrontational options between war and popular uprising and your logic is frequently used to support the former