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No. I don't. I think the West supports Ukraine because it want to punish Putin and weaken Russia. And Ukraine is acceptable collateral damage.
Here's a better question:
"Why should the West still support Ukraine".
It’s likely cheaper for the west to fund Ukraine. While you might say Putin won’t go for more that’s not a guarantee and against a lot of his history.
The EU and the US would need to tie up significant resources in the area as a counterweight to Russia. Or they can just fund Ukraine today.
Every Russian leader for centuries has expanded Russian borders thru military conflict since the founding of Moscow. There is no guarantee that Moscow suddenly modernized and acts within the international order with their next leaders and every cultural indicator that the next guy would probably be like the last guy.
But there is nothing new here. The imminent demise of Ukraine has been predicted weekly in some communities since the start (looking at you Davis Sacks). You are right the west is slowing down on armaments which they should not be doing. They should be increasing them. Perhaps even sending in western troops to just end this thing.
If we value the lives and prosperity of Ukraine (and Russia) at zero than perhaps this is true.
This way of thinking is, in my mind, the "grand strategy" of which I am extremely skeptical. We should be on guard against simple narratives that paper over real life complexity. IMO, the actions of Catherine the Great have zero predictive value for what Russia will do today.
Just-so stories got us into Vietnam and Iraq. Let's not repeat the mistake against a nuclear power this time.
Russian invaders Can value their own lives they are NOT my concern. And Ukranians are adults who can make their own decisions too.
Regardless on the “next leader” the current leader has always found a new and bigger country to invade.
And nuclear power doesn’t mean anything.
These arguments are always dumb though because anything Ukraine is just a repeat of yesterday because nothing has changed. Russia goes nowhere. Ukraine doesn’t go gain much.
The only thing that remains true is Russia hasn’t offerered terms any different than the terms we’ve offered to Japan in WW2. There is no deal on the table of “just the Russian areas”.
I have zero problem with a ceasefire today that came with security guarantees with teeth - nukes for Ukraine or NATO troops as peacekeepers.
I don't see any moral difference between a Ukrainian conscript or a Russia one. I think it's a sure sign of consensus building when some people are treated as subhuman.
It is literally conscripts who are dying. They did not make their own decisions to die and many would have fled given the chance.
What deal is the US offering? Surely if there was an effort to negotiate the war could be ended in a way to minimize suffering.
I see. Russian one is aggressor (yes, in smaller or larger part unwilling) and potential danger to me.
If someone murders people because they were blackmailed or something I have much lesser problem with them being shot.
Also, Russian soldiers can surrender, escape, emigrate, frag officers and so on.
I addressed this in a previous comment but you're asking for a level of moral purity that is impossible.
What percent of Nazi officers did that? What percent of Confederate officers did that? Answer: almost none except to save their own skin.
I would bet that if YOU had been born a Russian, or a German, or a Confederate you would have gone along with the consensus. Because almost everyone does.
Saying that Russian lives have no value because they are not the 1% morally pure is crazy to me. Now, Scott Alexander? He might just take the moral action. He gave his kidney to a stranger after all. But unless you have done something equally courageous, I'm going to bet you'd be just like the 99% who follow orders. (And so would I probably as well).
I have no problem with considering killing Nazi officers (or low level Wermacht soldiers) as a good thing.
In fact, in Poland we celebrate people who did this.
Maybe? Though notorious contrarianism is among my bigger problems so not entirely sure. Though even if I would end as SS-man if I would be born in Germany in in 1915, I still have no problem with considering killing SS-mans as a very good thing.
If "not bothered to escape/hide/bribe/surrender to preserve own life and avoid pointless murder" is 99% moral purity then I am still fine with them dying, like I am fine with SS-mans and Wermacht soldiers and Luftwaffe soldiers dying in WW II.
If I would have button that would cause random Russian soldier to die if pressed then I would press it all the day and hire people to keep pressing it while I sleep or do things that make button pressing impossible. And I kind of did it.
It's a logically consistent opinion. I always wondered about those movies like "The One" where a man has to kill all the alternate reality versions of himself. I always thought "I'd just be cool and not murder my other selves".
Now I understand, I guess?
I do accept the position that you want one side to win, and casualties are an acceptable cost, even if the dead are just like you. I just can't understand the glee in it or the certainty that what you're doing is right. But my ancestors were pacifists 🤷. Maybe its genetic.
I'd have more respect for the position if it involved personal risk for yourself and not just killing people with a button.
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