Busted Pundit Brain

 I offer two examples of "Busted Pundit Brain."

First, we have Matthew Yglesias casually hand-waiving away the unique awfulness of Putin's regime. There is nothing "irrational" about wanting to curb the Kremlin's international influence. They are arguably the largest "bad actor" on the international stage, and that includes Beijing (who are mostly malevolent at home). This is the glib YOLO mindset of the terminally "savvy" who don't think ideals matter.

Second, we predictably have the execrable Marc Thiessen (a high school classmate of mine). Thiessen sadly rose to prominence working for the colossally wrong Donald Rumsfeld. He has bought into the idea that America must always be everywhere. He naturally brings up Afghanistan as a sign of "Biden's weakness." Afghanistan was fucked up by his former boss, because no one in Bushworld knew a damned thing about nation building, including at home (ask the people of New Orleans).

This bullshit posturing about "American credibility" is to presume that every problem in the world is an American problem. Thiessen implausibly argues that NATO's credibility will lie in tatters, because...reasons? Ukraine isn't in NATO. How the hell is that an impact on NATO's credibility? If India invades Pakistan is that undermining NATO's credibility? 

One thing Yglesias does get right is that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is likely to be a disaster for Russia (and Ukraine, though he doesn't bother with that). Russia is not a rich country. Invading Ukraine is likely to be a quagmire that will grind up Putin's new military. He will face a long insurgency, economic sanctions and more international fallout. NATO will supply Ukrainians with the means to conduct their insurgency, including small drones and anti-aircraft missiles. We did it to the Soviets in Afghanistan and we will do it in Ukraine. For dickbrains like Thiessen, it's all about macho posturing, not actual conduct on the ground.

Absent from both arguments is the very real suffering that this will cause Ukrainians. THAT is the reason for a negotiated settlement.