(#4782) Who will blink first, putin or the west?

      First off there will be a blink. Because without one most of us won't exist afterwards. There is on one side some madmen fronted by putin who think they are the leaders of our planet. On the other side are rational leaders who think that freedom to choose one's own destiny is greater than a form of slavery. So a cabal of blood thirsty savages who wear suits and pretend to be enlightened against actual enlightened souls who are not afraid to stand up for humanity. My guess is that the depth of this current crisis will reach a plateau where some on the putin side will decide that enough is enough. A coup within the putin cabal will occur and that will be the first and final blink.
     As to the west blinking it is not in the strategy. The west has tried to honor laws and conventions despite the putin cabal disregarding the laws and conventions. But it has all been restricted to the boundaries of Ukraine. Knowing how putin's cabal is structured and playing out in real time, it is most likely that the boundaries of Ukraine will not stop the putin ambition. But even before a legal reason is given for the west to step in full fledged in the invasion of Ukraine, the putin cabal will try to do something that will violate the current status of restraint by the west. At that point the reasons for not instituting a no fly zone and bringing NATO forces to bear on putin will be moot.
     So here we will be with the threat that putin and his cabal has laid bare about nuclear weapons being activated. That is where the first or last blink will come about. Because we cannot stop putin and his cabal from doing what they are going to do, what we must do is counteract any effort by putin to deploy the nuclear option. We must stare down putin with our nukes aimed at him in response if he fires on us first. He has to feel the heat of any decision he makes if it is pushing that red button. He will blink because at his heart putin is a coward and nothing in the portfolio of a coward is brave. He will blink if not at that moment or before when members of his cabal decide to end putin and give up for surrender.