Great Power contentions

[Seamus Fermanagh]

One can't help but observe that if such a mobilization were feasible in the first place, the fact might have laid a prohibitive threshold for escalation in Ukraine as a proximate concern. As Putin surely understands, one doesn't gin up a maximal response on the fly.

You are correct, sadly. USA efforts to counter Russian ambitions over the last decade or so have been pretty feckless. Nor has NATO taken up the challenge of seriously ramping up its deployment capabilities and general readiness. Were we to attempt such a rapid deployment now it is fairly likely that it would be a bit of a flustercluck.

The NATO powers would do better to accept that Russia is a resurgent power and enable themselves to set up a credible deterrent. It may not be the "halcyon" days of the Cold War reborn, but the Russian push for power and for the status of a (the?) premier European power predates the CCCP by a long time. Russia is no longer a Soviet state, but it remains Russia.