Apologies. Sometimes my sarcasm isn’t so obvious, and I failed to tag it.
That stated, I think you may now see my point.
And as to “...may lead to Russia concluding that wider war is inevitable. “...
...THAT was my point of “effective,” to be patently clear.
No i got it :). I just the opportunity it offered to make a point that in the US you have these old men who still want to deal with Russia as if the cold war is still going but the world has moved on, technology has changed. But i don’t think any other country is going to play cold war/proxy war with the US. I think most of the world recognizes what the US did in the past as a thing not desired; a world of managed war and set enemies you never actually have to fight.