for the Ukraine would seem to leave NATO more flexibility down the road.
The specific threat of simply arming the Ukrainians (should Russia invade) will make Putin hesitate more than any other bargaining chip that we have it seems to me....especially now that he has an extremely valuable yet vulnerable oil pipelines.
Look at the number of them to protect going through Ukraine.
I hope that we have not taken this "lesser than war" option off of the table....it is our strongest chip.
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