“My position is and has been, this is all about Putin’s often discussed lament of the fall of the Soviet Union and the resulting loss of power and prestige”
If that were true, then Neocons SHOULD have chosen to work with Putin to try to prevent the war, and then stop it early on, rather than simply telling Putin that Ukraine is “None of their Business”.
By your theory, this approach would have been futile and Putin would have invaded anyway, but the world would have known who to blame for that, and in that hypothetical situation, there’s a good chance that Putin and his people would have been booted from power, or at least the rest of the world would have seen Putin as another Hitler...rather than just the Biden Girls and their captive countries in Europe.
So, if nothing else, the Neocons played RIGHT INTO the hands of Putin, made him super-popular in Russia (and many, many, other countries) and now the Neocons are in the process of losing Ukraine, for good.
If Putin’s goals were taking of Ukraine and more, as I believe, then there was nothing “to work with”, and at best there would have been a chamberlain, peace in our time moment. Actually 2014 was pretty much that moment.
We will obviously have to agree to disagree
Take care