A commanding section of the House, alongside influential pundits like Tucker Carlson, are vocally against even present levels of support.

It seems inaccurate to me to say there has been zero public debate, but i's true that the war came along at a political moment when the US was already very polarized, so the sorting function of debate was minimal. If someone tends liberal, they already have a very low opinion of Vladimir Putin. Conservatives need no urging to criticize any decision of the Biden administration or anything that smacks of 'globalism.'

As far as 'escalation' goes, moving a whole army over a border into another country by force is the most basic conflict scenario there is. Either one is OK with it, or thinks the aggressing party should remove its forces and receive a bill for the damage. The notion that the injured party should restrain its self-defense efforts or that the means of same should be withheld seems strange to me.

I remember the beginning of the War in Afghanistan, and it had far less debate and much more universal support.