They really don't get Putin at all, do they?

-They don't get anything at all.

Who remembers St. Javelin? "The Leopards are Coming"..the "Invincible" Challengers ...Patriots...ATCMS...?
The memory hole just spreads larger to encompass every new failure.

It's like watching Wile E Coyote on Loony Tunes. Each episode brought a new box of tricks ordered from "ACME" containing an even more extravagant new "final solution" for that pesky Road Runner...and every single one resulted in failure...most blowing up in his face.

Wile E Coyote of course never learned: for episodic reasons and next weeks continued cartoon amusement.

The point of the show was that Wile was forever an idiot who repeats ( with the help of powerful outside help: ACNE Industries...), mere variants of the same failed strategies.

-Our politicians don't even have the episodic excuse of Wile on Loony Tunes as they head ever onward towards the next imbecilic lethal and stupid "ACME" solution.

-The next one may be "final" but the track record requires we ask: ...for whom?