Clearly this is true, and the West would be crazy to provoke a pan-European war. Then one must consider whether "They" have an interest in destroying Western military potential. For the life of me, I can't think of a sensible reason.

All that being said, I think They will still try. The reason is that They are so desperate, They think a war--any war--might just shake something loose in Their favor, or at least give Them some room to maneuver.

They can bullshit all of us all They want, but the Russians are creating facts on the ground and that's a huge problem for Them.