Article by Tom Luongo.

Excerpts:

What does matter is that is how Putin views this conflict. And we have to deal with it. Period.

What also matters is that those who stand behind Putin are even less patient and circumspect than he is.

In order to avoid that bigger war only the oligarch class wants, we, as people, have to accept some responsibility for it getting to this point. Without that there can be no basis for a negotiated settlement.

This conflict between the West, and this includes all of Europe, the UK as well as the US, and Russia is one with existential consequences.

What Putin said, quite clearly, is that this ball is in our court. We can either sit down and have an honest discussion of a negotiated future or we will be at war. If that is what we in the West want, it is what we will get. Putin has put his sons on the line in eastern Ukraine. Are we?

See also this article by Martin Armstrong.