A good online comment:
It does NOT give them reason. It may give them pretext. But when they want to escalate, any convenient pretext they can fabricate will be spewed out. Appeasement ONLY encourages aggressors. They can ignore any statements and rhetoric and correctly conclude: ‘I did X, no real consequences, therefore I can do more X.’ The ONLY language they understand is force or consequences with real cost to them. Vladimir Lenin said it very clearly:
‘We probe with bayonets. Where we find steel we withdraw, where we find mush we press on.’
When delaying reciprocal action, the cost for the next round ALWAYS increases. Delaying response is a fools’ game. Democracies always play that fools’ game because for any one politician, it is easier to kick the can down the road with bad reasoning like you posted. But when the situation finally becomes unavoidable, it is a deep serious problem.
Here we are.