The US will never risk a war with Russia... All of this is only politics. It's sad but nobody can stop Putin.
The same has been said of many dictators and strong-men who seemed to hold all the cards in a bully-boy confrontation, but the truth is, such folk can, indeed, be stopped.
Back in the day when Britain and France still had the backbone and muscle to enforce their will, they kicked the Russians' asses in the Crimea, in the Russians' own back yard.
But after having bled themselves white in two world wars and bankrupted themselves and being obliged to let go of their empires, they are mere shadows of their former selves and unable and unwilling to protect their own backyards like this again.
Ditto for the Germans, even in collaboration with Britain and France; they just haven't got the nerve for that kind of opposition any longer.
Which means we aren't going to rachet-up the military pressure on our own, unless an existing or solid-prospective member of NATO or the EU is attacked, beyond the Ukraine.
Poland is nervous, and getting pissed. Ditto for Turkey, who scrambled a bunch of F-16s earlier today to nudge-back a Russian air recon sortie close to their shores; with the Russians probably looking to gather real-time intelligence on Turkish Black Sea shore activity and the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.
And, even though they're formidable enough even in a weakened condition, let's not forget that they're just now beginning new Naval and Air build-outs and still scraping the rust and barnacles off of many of their assets and that they're still dealing largely with a Conscript Army rather than a Volunteer one. They're tough. They're bad-asses. But they're human, and vulnerable, and not as strong as everyone is worried about.
But, beyond needing a solid casus belli and the right timing and resorting to counter-force only as last resort...
It takes balls to stand up to a strong man.
It's not the military assets that are lacking in this instance.
In this case... in all probability, what's missing here is 'balls'.
There may come a day, in the not-too-distant future, when the Europeans wish they had made a better showing in such matters, in looking back at this particular incident.
But they won't... I really don't think they have it in 'em any longer... they bled themselves white in two world wars within the past century and they've degenerated into a collection of largely ignore-able second- and third-rate powers.
