Given what we know now? Putin is setting the whole world on fire just so he can go back to the 'Glory Days'...



... one of the biggest things I've gotten from history is 1) idiots with more ideology than sense change the course of history more times than it really should, 2) nostalgic leaders are the sort of leaders who would burn everything down just to satisfy that nostalgia, 3) democracy in anything but a very restricted form with a governmental balance and actual separation of powers is just a few hops away from becoming a failed state, 4) if there is no hegemon then the whole world suffers, 5) Hobbes is far closer to the money on the human condition than we would like to believe, and 6) some nations are just assholes pure and simple (just a cursory look at what the French did to the various German states can make you sick, let alone the shenanigans that the Brits pulled during the days of the HRE) just with some more than others.