John J. Mearsheimer

In other words, if we increase the scope and scale of these attacks, Putin will surrender.

Yeah, yeah.

And so that's the idea.

And the argument that people like Karaganov make is that the only way that we can reverse this situation is make it clear to the West that there is a red line here.

They don't understand that, but we're going to make it clear.

And the way we're going to do it is we're going to attack NATO countries, and we're going to dare them to counterattack.

And the bet is that the Europeans and the Americans will back off and tell the Ukrainians no more of those attacks.

We won't assist you.

We won't provide you with the drones and the intelligence to attack Mother Russia anymore.

And that this will work.

And the Karaganov view is if it doesn't work, what we'll then do is use nuclear weapons.

And that will surely send a clear message that there is a red line here.

There's no question about that.

But here we're talking about NATO getting involved in a war.

And NATO's in no position to win a war against the Russians, number one.

Number two, the last thing the United States wants, given that we're up to our eyeballs in alligators in the Middle East, plus we have to worry about containing China in East Asia, is a war in Ukraine against Russia.

And then most important of all,

Once you talk about the United States and Russia actually fighting each other, the threat of nuclear escalation goes up greatly.

And the last thing we want is a nuclear war over Ukraine because Ukraine is just not that important.

Well, Karajanov's point is you're absolutely right that people in the West are not thinking clearly.