The answer to why the west didn’t use diplomacy is very clear Mccoy. Would you let another nation use diplomacy if a tyrant had conquered all your main seaports and then foreigners decided to use diplomacy to let a tyrant keep a large section of you’re nation? That’s the kind of demands Putin is making. Would we have used diplomacy with Hitler? Putin has the same mentality. Ask all the people in prison who for disagreeing. Ask all his enemies about their friends being poisoned and killed.
Steve, there are many reasons to use diplomacy or rather de-escalation, the main one is to avoid the utter ruin presently happening in Ukraine. De-escalation doesn't mean to agree with Putin, but rather to make him change his mind, allowing him to save face. That didn't happen because America, more precisely Biden, chose to escalate.
Your reasoning is not wrong and I partly agree but Ukraine now is a totally ruined country and people there are being killed extensively. An attempt to avoid that might have perhaps been more coherent with Dwapara, whereas it turned out to be like in Kali Yuga.
