[But we could have just cut them a check without destabilizing half the world and all this drama with the global economy]
Countries that have been destabilized were on the brink anyway. Russians won’t always be stupid. If Germany were Russia’s size and Russia were Germany’s size during World War II, Germany would have conquered Europe, and then the world. That’s why the French and the Brits fought the Russians in the Crimean War back in 1853, decades before Lenin was even born. Not out of any great love for the House of Osman (Ottoman), but because they did not want a seriously large and threatening Russia becoming any bigger in land area and population. Risk is a simple game, but geopolitically-speaking, it’s actually pretty reflective of what happens in real life - the more land and people you rule over, the stronger you are.
Well, Russia had legitimate concerns and we could have addressed them with out sparking blood being spilled....we could have paid them off and tried to bring them into normal countries.
Now that Russia invaded, opportunity lost.