@akkartik he’s a bad motherfucker, for sure! but that’s not what matters. the reason we don’t and shouldn’t cede Ukraine to him is that would set the condition for further military adventurism by him and others. the credible threat of defensive war is almost always an essential condition of a reasonably just peace. 1/

@akkartik but we do not fight Putin to destroy him, even though he’s a bad motherfucker. we resist his adventurism to sustain the preconditions for a reasonably just peace, in particular the condition that territorial borders cannot be revised in favor of an aggressor by military force. 2/

@akkartik the world will always have bad people, including sometimes horrible leaders, and we will be horrible if we make it our task to stand as judge, jury, and executioner of those we (even correctly!) consider bad. some countries we are friendly towards have mass murderers as their leaders too. 3/

@akkartik but we should, and i am glad to say mostly do, draw the line at the lines. it might feel more noble to depose Putin, Netanyahu, Xi, MBS, all of whom in their way are pretty plainly mass murderers and oppressors. but that would set the stage for eternal war, rather than reasonably just peace. 4/

@akkartik enforcing a broadly consensual Westphalian settlement, on the other hand, is something nearly all political communities can live with, a consensus against which violators can be rendered pariahs and met with overwhelming force and likelihood of failure. /fin