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No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Are you just about making this a game of putting words in other people’s mouths?

Putin, unlike you, at least seems to have read The Art Of War. The first chapter of that book states the following:

All warfare is based on deception. … (I:18)

If the will is not in our leadership, then any demagogue will keep pushing to see where the limits are, and will breach the limits where deemed feasible. Same thing happened during the 1930s with Adolf. And there are too many people sympathetic with Vladimir in our own federal government, as I presume you well know (including Obama, obviously)—and just as many sympathizers in the EU.