I am so tired of this kind of logic. No matter how often its gets disproven, so many cling to it.

It is this kind of logic which makes wars drag out years, sometimes decades. Each side think compromise is weakness and so war just continues.

It is this kind of logic that makes parents beat misbehaving children because they think that if they let the smallest infraction pass, the kid will exploit their "weakness."

It is the same thinking that led to the broken-window philosophy which filled up American prisons and made US hold most of the worlds total prison population.

My own native Norway had historically an extremely bloody past because of this kind of honor thinking. It caused the blood fueds where every wrong and every little slight had to be avenged as to not show any weakness.

But an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Compromise means you actually have to make some sacrifices that hurts a bit. What exactly did we compromise on? We didn't put a lot of military in Ukraine to not provoke the Russian. Sure... but that had nothing to do with Russian demands.

We avoided certain things to not provoke Russians. But we didn't actually agree to any of the demands Russia made. Hence we didn't actually compromise on anything.

I know... you will argue that their demands were totally unfair. Yes, indeed Putins demand ARE unfair, but that is entirely beside the point. War and dead civilians and ruined cities are also unfair.

By giving into some of Putins demands we could get him to pull back forces. The next thing we would do is to ramp up production of military equipment and strenghten Ukraine. Trying to build up Ukrainian forces right when Russia is standing on the border is kind of the wrong time to do it.

Did Hitler and Stalin show weakness towards each other when they made peace and split Poland? No, both sides bought time. We haven't bought any time.