I'm not saying that Putin is a nice guy. He isn't. A leader of super-power can't be a nice guy by definition. Biden isn't a nice guy, Xi isn't a nice guy, too. But he is a rational thinking guy. If you depict him as an evil monster, who, without any reason started to kill good guys, it means that there is no place for discussion, or even for a deterrence.. And this is direct and the shortest way into a catastrophe. We must understand their concerns at least to determine the level of their "acceptable losses", their maximal stake in any possible conflict, to keep balance of possible incomes and possible loses. Trump's team was able to keep mutually acceptable and even mutually profitable balance of profits&terrors. Obama's and Biden's teams - no, first of all because they are stupid and corrupted. They prefer to ruin the whole American economy in a futile attempt of saving their personal assets in Ukraine. Or, may be, they just want to sold the USA to Xi.
It isn’t about being a “Good” guy. It isn’t about being a “Nice” guy. It is about being an honorable man.
Everything in our world tends to penalize those who do not keep their word. Those who lie.
Your credit rating is dependent upon you doing what you said you would. Paying back money you borrowed.
Your reputation in the business world depends upon doing what you said you would.
If you promise something and don’t deliver. Your reputation suffers. Future opportunities are reduced.
Nations are the same. If you lie to other nations, betray them, the rest of the world will view you in a poor light.
It is the old fable of the Boy who cried wolf. Nobody believed him when he spoke the truth, finally.
It is undeniable that Putin has lied. It is not debatable. So any claims that he had any justification for the actions of Russia have to be filtered through Putin’s lies.
Let’s say you are a cop. You come up on a scene. A man lies dead. The survivor tells you he killed the man in self defense. The dead guy had a gun and the survivor shot him in self defense. Only the corpse doesn’t have a gun. And the bullets hit him in the back.
So the “Suspect” lied. You don’t know what the truth is. But you know that story isn’t it.
Our world expects explanations. We expect the truth. And when we don’t get it we expect punishment for the liar. It isn’t an American ideal. All of Europe including the neutral countries are responding the same.
Putin said he wasn’t invading. He did invade. He gave a series of progressively more outrageous explanations for his actions. All of it was lies. Each statement. Each claim.
Putin had a chance. More than one really. And he went with lies every time. Now like the unemployed guy who couldn’t bother to show up to work, he blames everyone. Everyone but the one person responsible.
That is why I can’t back Putin. He made himself untrustworthy.