war is the application of violence in order to force one’s opponent to accept one’s own policy preferences. putin decided on those policy choices before he invaded ukraine. the questions now are 1). how much violence would it require for putin to abandon his original policy preferences? and 2). at what point might he alter those policy choices without abandoning them?
it would likely be advisable to recall that the soviet union fought a losing game in afghanistan for just over nine years while the russian empire fought ten wars with the ottoman turks over a period of 210 years for control of central asia and the balkans.
