Saying "heads are on the chopping block" is a well known euphemism for paying serious, personal consequences, not "some of their voters will be mad at them and not vote for them."

If Americans vote in a Republican in 2024, that doesn't mean that they get voted in because they opposed supporting Ukraine. There's plenty of reasons why people pull the lever for a candidate. So no, I don't foresee any real consequences for Western governments over supporting Ukraine defending themselves from Russian aggression.

These are Russians

Wait did you just ask if I knew what life was like under Saddam?
I mean I suppose that would depend on who you ask? Kurds maybe?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anfal_campaign

The Iraq war was actually opposed by many NATO members. The decision to go into Iraq was not taken by the NATO organisation.
NATO did train Iraqi army and police 2004-2011.

I actually think NATO and its members have made huge blunders.
Inviting Ukraine to join and then Merkel vetoing their accession was a mistake.
Ukraine should have been allowed to enter or the invite to membership should not have been made at all.
Not because of any perceived assurances NATO had towards Russia, but because it jeopardized Ukraine's security.

I'm not for a second suggesting NATO or the West in general are above scrutiny. The military industrial complexes of the US, UK, France, Israel and others is something I detest.

However this attempt to admonish Russia and Putin of any responsibility for the war in Ukraine at the behest of blaming NATO. Is totally absurd and should be acknowledged as such.

At what point will the apologists of Putin accept it's not NATO pulling the trigger on the rifle or firing the artillery of the Russian army?
It's not NATO responsible for the purging of snt political opposition in Russia.
It's not NATO controlling the media, pilfering the state or manipulating thousands of Russian soldiers.

This is what happens after 2 decades of a small group of people centralising power and obfuscating the truth from the people.

Bringing up the Kurds right now doesn't really help an argument about how America treats their proxy soldiers after they've been armed by the pentagon, die on the front lines for our cause, and get rudely discarded.

I want a "I staged a coup for the US and all I got was this tshirt" t shirt

You may add their minorities, their poors, their veterans... Kurds for sure... "our" cause however....
Still not a sledghammer fate.

Looked to my left, looked to my right. Still didn't see an independent internationally recognized Kurdistan. Did see an eerily smiling Erdogan

You asked me if I knew "What Iraq actually looked like under Saddams rule". The short answer is no, I've never been to Iraq. Especially not Iraq under Saddams rule; Another part of the answer is. Well it depends on who you ask. If you asked the Kurds, it was clearly not good.
On a tangent but actually linked to the current geo-political climate. I am sympathetic towards the Kurdish struggle for statehood and recognition. I think Erdogan is capitalizing on global events to suppress them, and I would not be surprised to see a Turkish military escalation along its border with Syria.

I'd be very interested in what the alternative to supporting Ukraine is.

Lots of posters here are deriding the West for supporting Ukraine, even going as far as to blame the destruction of Ukraine on the West altogether. As if it was Biden himself launching the Russian missiles into Ukraine's apartment buildings.
That is a fallacy.

I'd be very interested in hearing any alternative solution that respects Ukraine's right to self determination, or the so called security guarantees they claim that Russia deserves. We are yet to hear a single one.

The alternative is not supporting Ukraine.

So ignore Ukraine's right to exist as a sovereign country? Or accept Ukraine's right to exist as a sovereign country, but only the parts the Russia doesn't want to occupy?