[alternatives?]

Is the switch to sanctions backing down or an escalation?

[Navy Patriot]

It’s the typical Marxist Left method, they come for your friends in the dead of night from behind, then they come for you the same way.

[babble-on]

Escalation, the opposite of backing down.

[Eagles6]

Yes...maybe...I think. (That pretty much sums up Demonrat foreign policy, except for the “Oh, look! I dropped the soap. Let me bend over and pick it up!”)