If Russia resumes its war with Ukraine, how should the United States respond?

Speaking as a dual citizen of the US and a European country, the EU absolutely cannot deal with it. The EU sounds terrific on paper and despite its faults, I'm still a fan, but in matters of geopolitics, getting the EU to agree on something is worse than herding cats.

I don't think provoking Russia is a good play here, but neither is being passive and dovish with regard to the Ukraine situation, like Obama was. US leadership is sorely needed there and it should come up in the form of ramping up lethal aid, at the very least. Foreign aid, too, no strings attached, because solving the corruption that may stem from that would be a hell of a lot easier than propping up a Ukraine that's been torn apart. There's very little appetite in the EU to tske a harsher stand against Russia because of how complicated internal EU dynamics can be, but it'd be a hell of a lot easier to get a few European heavy hitters in NATO to sign off on a strategy to counter Russia if it's well thought out. Ukraine isn't a NATO member, but stopping it from becoming one is exactly why Russia started bankrolling the separatists - a country involved in a current conflict can't join NATO. At the end of the day, Ukraine is a Russian-backed test for NATO, and NATO is pretty damn close to failing.

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