If they reacted too forcefully, that could mean retaliation by Putin and escalation of the conflict into WW3. Do we really want that? As a Belgian citizen, I'd rather not wake up to artillery fire in Brussels...
Sometimes, trying to be nice at first turns into deadly encounters. Sometimes, employing force early means not having to employ even more force later on. Difficult balance I guess.
Did we learn nothing from World War 2? Appeasement doesn't work on someone like this. Only force. The only thing keeping dictators like this in check was the threat of nukes and mutually assured destruction. Apparently that has stopped working. So now what? It's not going to stop with Ukraine.
History has shown that trying to let people like Putin take chunks of land as they please doesn't end well. They don't one day decide, "Yep, that's enough! Sorry for the trouble, lads!"
They see how easy it is and do it again and again until one day they're bombing your home because you're in their territory.
