Putin is surely a rival of ours. In no way do I advocate letting down our guard. However, I do believe it is better to have a more constructive relationship with him and his country comma as opposed to being on the verge of war war on the path to war. Such a war would be the end of this country and theirs, plus a lot of other nations as well. That is simply insanity. Bottom line: there has to be a better way - head of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon understood that, I think that we can all see the wisdom of that.
I don’t think it would come to ww3. Call his bluff. Arm the ukraine. Demographics will destroy his dreams of rebuilding the Soviet Union so I agree we can out wait him.