Well, all I can say is if "NATO" & their allies have been preparing for this for 8 years .... and after a little over 4 months of Russia's special military operation, the amount of Ukrainian ground they have taken as pictured below... then I can understand why NATO & their allies preferred to try and "weaken" Russia by proxy and not via direct conflict.
Also, when you consider the amount of fancy Western weaponry Russia has destroyed (or collected) along the way, the amount of Ukrainian servicemen it has captured or destroyed, the tiny amount of their own regular military personnel they have used, their lack of need to use their "real" firepower and the fact that they are still viewing this as a "special military operation" - then how will NATO & their allies respond if Russia actually declares war on them and really start to mobilise the nation onto a war footing?
I believe what is important in this regard is that NATO & Co (especially the US) need to remember Russia has experienced real war before and they know how to deal with real attrition. For example, they lost 39 million people in WW2 in the defence of their nation against the Nazis. I would hate to think how the US population would respond if a couple of aircraft carriers were quickly sunk (with all 10,000 crew aboard)?
I just hope to God the West knows what they are doing.
