Has the West always had it in for Russia? Hardly.

If America really wanted to destroy Russia, it could do no better than tell it to keep doing exactly what it’s doing.

Russia is trapped in an unsatisfying holding pattern, hoping for oil prices to recover, for the West to fragment and for Ukraine to implode.

Moscow’s many stated reasons for fighting in Ukraine are either false or incoherent. Its actual goals, unfortunately, preclude a tidy and quick resolution ever taking hold.

Russia appears to have triumphed on the battlefield in Ukraine, but in doing so it has done at least as much damage to itself as its poor neighbor.

Realist arguments against arming the Ukrainians may seem unassailable. But that is only because they are incomplete.