“then containing Russia and preventing it becoming empire again is the goal.”
That is precisely what the “Cold War” accomplished without firing a shot. Unfortunately I doubt we can pull that off twice. The win of the cold war involved a lot of events that all led to Russia’s collapse.
But to think for a second that we are not now on a Cold war footing, would be pretty stupid.
Russia is not a rich country, but neither are we now. The odds are not the same as when Reagan initiated “star wars’ and we ran Russia into the ground trying to keep up.
We also now have a relationship between Russia and china that complicates the matter.
One thing certain....there is much more to come.
Russia was a massive Empire, that is why it was a cold War, it was so incredibly powerful and huge that it threatened the world.
It had at least a half dozen Airborne Divisions, massive numbers of Assault helicopter brigades, massive bridge building capabilities and could overrun Europe within weeks, that is what the Cold War was.
Post Soviet Russia, is no “Cold War”, it is just a country that is unfriendly, UNLESS we let it grow back into empire and become a monster again.
We need to nip this in the bud. Remember NATO is bigger than ever with new nations discussing joining, it even includes most of the Warsaw pact that made the Cold War possible.
Russia isn’t what it was and is not poised to roll over Western Europe anytime soon and we don’t have to allow that future to ever happen again.