The Russian nuclear strike did seem more than a little disproportionate, given we'd only just retaken a town in Latvia. And anyway I doubt the Yanks would have waited around, let alone asked our opinion, before getting their counterstrike in.
For what its worth, my play would have been as follows: Deploy said multinational force, bosltered by elements from the 'coalition of the willing, to the contested Latvian-Russian border under the guise of securing NATO's border, thereby cutting off the rebel held town. Issue an ultimatum for all forces in the pocket to lay down their weapons, or face the consequences. Oh, issue orders for HMS Ocean not to sail anywhere near a US carrier (yes, yes - hindsight and all that)...
I too thought the LibDem peer was a total waste of space. Staggered that at some point she seemed to suggest cutting the Latvians loose. Evidently she didn't quite grasp the founding principles of NATO.
It was a shame the programme kind of petered out at the end just as it was getting more intereresting.