ronib
Wwm2 effectively by not agreeing to concede land 3 years ago, Zelensky delayed the time when he was going to roll over and give in. A really smart leader knows what battle to fight and Ukraine was never going to win this war.
Despite Boris Johnson saying the Uk was standing shoulder to shoulder etc - that didn’t exactly go according to plan either.
It is time to face reality. I weep for the needless deaths.
Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about that. The Danegeld demanded by Putin (or any other expansionist aggressor) is not money but the land of another country, but once it was handed over, he would have stationed his troops there and planned to be back for another helping.
Dane-geld
A.D. 980-1016
IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say:–
"We invaded you last night–we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:–
"Though we know we should defeat you,
we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:–
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!"