alt Hacker NewsYour first paragraph is close to correct, but have you thought of the difference between supportive vs coercive power?
If the Russian army is the force that enables Russian foreign policy, they why do some people in Ukraine think that they don't want to do things the Russian way?
Likewise, I wonder how helpful the US military will be at forcing our former allies to do things they don't want to do?
It's a fair question but the answer is fairly simple: the Russian military simply isn't strong. The only reason they haven't been bombed back into the Stone Age is because they have a nuclear arsenal. That has limited the West's response to being "proportionate".
The Russian-Ukraine front is kinda like WW1. There's no real air power to speak of. The front is dominated by artillery and infantry and fortifications like trenches.
Russia cannot project military power anywhere like how the US can and the US has decades of projecting that power to force countries to capitulate, essentially. Europe outsourced their security to the US, for example. But make no mistake: NATO is a protection racket. It projects American power into Europe.
This is one reason why I call this administration inept because they seem intent on splintering NATO, which actually diminishes American power. Just like disbanding USAID diminished American soft power, and quite cheaply at that.
The lesson since at least the (W) Bush administration is that only nuclear weapons can guarantee your survival.