Your post number 61 is dead on accurate.
I try to call “balls and strikes” with Ukraine. I am not a fan of our approach to it, and I still hope somehow there can be a negotiated settlement that forever puts the issue to bed. Yeah, Russia could lose this round, but how do you know they won’t keep trying every 5-10 years with a different leader. This is one area I do think Trump would have made a dramatic difference, in that I would think his focus would be on getting a settlement that works in the long term.