As I write this on Thursday, Russia has invaded Ukraine and already numerous Taiwan pundits are rushing to reassure us that the “Taiwan is Ukraine” takes are all bad and things are quite different here, from the level of US involvement to the operational conditions of actually preparing for an invasion and tossing troops across the Taiwan Strait. All these things are both totally true and totally unimportant. Before any war there is always a class of public speakers who are certain that things will be normal just like they have always been, because the invader is, after all, a