I could be wrong, but isn’t the “not annexing” because he doesn’t recognize it as a separate territory in the first place?

Gotcha. Very valid point.

People love looking at the first civil war in conversations like this, but the next civil war is going to be nothing like it. For a likely comparison, you’d have to look at the Spanish Civil War and The Troubles in Ireland.

Americans have no fucking clue what they’re asking for.