By Damon Linker, The Week

Sitting in my comfortable suburban Philadelphia home, watching horrific events unfold half a world away in Ukraine while protected by the most powerful military the world has ever known, I feel overwhelmed with sadness. Yes, of course, for the suffering and shattered aspirations of the Ukrainian people. But even more so for the sense that nothing significant can be done about it.

Sure, we’ve imposed some sanctions, and we’re bound to impose some more. But does anyone really believe this will make a meaningful difference to Vladimir Putin’s decision-making? Since Europeans are currently debating whether to grant Italy’s request for a sanctions carve-out for luxury goods, forgive me for considering it unlikely.

Others propose to send weapons to Ukraine so they can wage an insurgency against what is bound to be either a Russian occupation or puppet regime installed in Kyiv. But I have questions. Like whether Putin will consider such an effort an act of war by NATO. (He certainly will.) And whether this would prompt him to attack military supply routes within a NATO country (most likely Poland), leading to a vastly broader war. (He just might.) And whether the European Union will have the stomach for setting in motion anything remotely like such a sequence of events. (They definitely won’t.)

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