[shufflerofrocks]

>This only makes the current war that started in 2014 even dumber

Not sure about this.

US had been meddling with Russia using Ukraine as base, and the 2014 ousting of the Ukraine Prez at the time was only made worse by the US and EU flaming the issue.

Not saying the war was necessary, but given the large number of times US has been involved in regime changes of various countries (using this Modus Operandi of supporting protesters), taking back control of a region they used to govern (as USSR) is not something absurd to consider.

[082349872349872]

Sure, we've all studied the Mexican-American war (1846-1848), but still, in this century it seems like an appropriate response would've been counter-regime change by supporting protestors, not, you know, actually mounting an invasion? (sorry, "special military operation")

If the goal is to go around recovering former territories, there's a "Russian River" in California just waiting for its own SMO: Славянка наша?

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Рашен-Ривер

  Ne valyay duraka, ax, Rossiya!
  Za moryami skuchayesh, podi...
  Shto Sibir', shto Alyaska – dva berega:
  Baby, koni, razdol'ye v puti. (2x)

[shufflerofrocks]

>Sure, we've all studied the Mexican-American war (1846-1848)

and Cambodia, Iraq, Vietnam, Cuba, and 50 other known instances with more than a few of them in this decade itself.

Given how good the US is at the sort of foreign meddling, and that supporting protesters hasn't ever worked in reversing regime-change (unless it was an extremely unstable country), taking control of a territory that US is using for it's operations isn't an invalid move, geopolitically speaking.

>there's a "Russian River" in California just waiting for its own SMO: Славянка наша?

Lol. I'm not at all disagreeing with the ideological basis in your point, but Russia's wanted Ukraine for a long time, and US using Ukraine as a frontline provided a convenient excuse.