They assumed that the sanctions would work and as a result Russia would be forced to withdraw if presented with a credible threat of Article 5 invocation.
The situation now is so bad that an Article 5 invocation would be the end of NATO as many countries in the alliance would refuse to intervene, or experience domestic political crises if they did.
They assumed that the sanctions would work and as a result Russia would be forced to withdraw if presented with a credible threat of Article 5 invocation.
The situation now is so bad that an Article 5 invocation would be the end of NATO as many countries in the alliance would refuse to intervene, or experience domestic political crises if they did.
And they thought the rest of the world would go along with the sanctions.
The rest of the world went along, but not like how they wanted.
They might have seen it as win-win. Either Russia folds under the sanctions or the MIC keeps selling weapons.
As you point out, they didn’t factor in all the relevant contradictions.