Your view is correct...partially.
Military ISN'T the only way of doing things, which your point makes.
There are economical and
Political.
Crimea happened during the Lyin Kings reign.
Obama was Putins best weapon for 8 years.
Europe put themselves into their energy needs.
Their leadership flat out did stupid stuff.
As far as US/Euro forces being assembled, Obama had no intention of doing anything. Without US commitment, Europe isn't going to do anything.
It doesn't matter how big and bad your military is, if you have an idiot or traitor "leading".
Your analysis of the Russian/US military capabilities seems to have left out one other point. Russia is a nuclear armed power with MAD capability. They can not be militarily defeated unless they decide to be defeated. Escalation is always an option for them. They are a proud people - I would not want to bet the fate of life on this planet on the hope that they will back down when the future of their nation is at stake.
I didn't overlook anything. This article is about Russia warning the US...
First ask the question "why is Russia there?"
It's not national security.
Being that IT'S NOT national security, the LAST THING they want to do is anything that can escalate to nuke.
If they are in it strictly for creating a pipeline, nuclear annihilation is an awful high price for a single pipeline.
Russia had free reign to do what they wanted for 8 years, with no worry of retaliation. NOW they HAVE to resort to posturing.