Reminds me of Syria.<p>When the civil war was ongoing, and the rebels had a good chance, the West did not help them enough. Russia went in, Iran went in, and now we have Syria still with its appalling Government, plus strong Russian and Iranian influence.<p>Ukraine is at war, the West helps but holds back in various ways and is slow, Russia is forging ties with Iran and North Korea, and those ties are going to cause problems.<p>In the wings also we have the Chinese Government, now a fundamental player in the Russian war effort, who I think are keeping the war going in their own interest as part of their wish to seize Taiwan by force.<p>The longer the war goes on, the more contagion happens.<p>The West needs to step up and actually force Russia out of Ukraine, and that means direct military intervention. The longer we wait, the more trouble we are going to be in.<p>It's not a great situation to be in, but we have to look to ourselves for that; if Ukraine had been in NATO, I can't imagine Russia would have invaded, and the world would be a much safer and happier place.