It’s easy to say “sunk cost fallacy” but that last bit is very, very tough to get over. Ask any US veteran how they feel about their time in the ME now.

Most of them I know are extremely bitter about being sent over there to begin with, including the very patriotic ones. Very few have an opinion along the lines of "We should have stayed until the job is done". Most express some variant of "We should have gotten out sooner, but also the fact that we left our translators behind to be executed by the Taliban haunts my dreams"

The pool may also be further polluted since saying “yes end the war even if we lose all gains” may be considered an unpatriotic opinion that gets you targeted by Russian police. These are people that can and do jail men, women, and children for such behavior.

That much is true.

It’s also really hard to convince the other country’s citizens to “give up and go home” when their homes are under enemy control or demolished and their family members, friends, and neighbors have been killed or maimed.

It’s easy to say you’re ready to stop when your team is ahead. Not so much if you make them give up the conquered territory, and even less likely if they have to pay to rebuild the damage they caused.

The only ways this ends are Ukrainian allies supporting them enough to make Russians hurt enough to demand changes in leadership… or, you know, Russia wins and the rest of the world writes off the next decade of atrocities Russia commits against the conquered people of Ukraine…. And then the story repeats in other Eastern European countries…

It might not be such a hard pill to swallow if they'd just, I dunno, draw and quarter the guy who got them into this mess.

And they’re going to have to accept the fact that yes, actually, they did die for nothing. No one asked them to do this, they killed how many Ukranians who were minding their own business and now we have to be careful about their feelings? I don’t want innocent but scared Russians to be punished either but I’m not going to put their feelings over the safety of Ukrainians.

I doubt the Ukranians would be happy to lose even more of their land. Crimea showed that Russia will just wait another few years and try the same shit again, banking on Ukrainians just wanting peace.

No, civilians on most countries do not give you that answer. People saying that is a very clear indication they've been submitted to imperialistic propaganda.

But yes, anything you hear about Russia, it's important you keep in mind that the people saying it could have been executed if they said something different.

Fuck no, when we went to Vietnam and Iraq I did not give two shits about gaining anything from pointless and illegal wars. I think you will find most people who opposed those wars had exactly the same opinions.

With these cases, and with Russia, I think it is actually very important that the people come to understand that the blood and gold was spent for nothing. Otherwise there is no lesson learned.