I was mostly responding to the implied “Why did Americans (and possibly people from other NATO countries) have such a bad prediction miss about how the conflict would play out.” I think I agree with everything you wrote above—in particular the invader-installed government seems to be an important distinction, and in a way that casually following world events from the US perspective would not lead one to realize.
I was mostly responding to the implied “Why did Americans (and possibly people from other NATO countries) have such a bad prediction miss about how the conflict would play out.” I think I agree with everything you wrote above—in particular the invader-installed government seems to be an important distinction, and in a way that casually following world events from the US perspective would not lead one to realize.