What would the USA do if Russia amassed troops and military equipment on our Southern border.
What did we do when they amassed military equipment in Cuber?
That’s why Russia is doing this:
Of course they always have subs right off our shore, but this is them poking us in the eye, publicly demonstrating the problem.
If it’s good for us, it’s good for them.
Russia simply does not want our missiles, missile defense, fighters, tanks, bombers, troops, on their border, no differently than we do not want their troops on our border, China doesn’t want our troops on their border and we don’t want their troops on our border.
***No Major power wants the military of another playing on their border: China, US, Russia.
The hypocrisy of our actions would be funny were it not for the consequences it has caused. We simply hide behind some BS notion of Ukrainian national sovereignty (used only when convenient) to justify our actions.
There was no reason for this and we took it to far: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/
We had to have known this would cause a war:
1. Russia went into Georgia when we tried expanding NATO there in 2008. Russia went into Ukraine when we tried expanding NATO in 2014. Russia very clearly stated their disapproval with our actions in 2004 regards NATO expansion into Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
2. Russia has repeatedly, publicly, stated that this is a “red line” for them.
3. Anyone with even the most basic tactical knowledge would see that Ukraine in NATO would be a disaster for Russia. It would tip the entire nuclear deterrence scale to our advantage: first strike (no reaction time for Russia - 6 minutes time of flight to Moscow with a modern hyper-sonic) and ability to intercept their missiles (most are based in their South-West). Huge maneuver corridors, many deep water ports and large air fields. Same rail gauge and direct road connection with Russia. Easy logistics via land through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania (all NATO members). A large country with a big economy and massive infrastructure capable of basing a large foreign force indefinitely (like Germany). Big cities and forested areas where it’s easy to hide things.
4. This is Biden in 1997 regards NATO expansion into the Balkans: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5009529/user-clip-biden-1997-nato-expansion He knows this is a Russian security issue which they take extremely seriously.
Even the naive senior civil servant appointee will get intel briefs, see the Russian build up via imagery, signal, human intelligence. There is just no possible way that this was an accident or surprise, but you just can’t prove it.
***IMHO, while you cannot prove this now, our actions were so ridiculous, so over the top, that it almost appears like we wanted this war.
You more or less have some folks in government admitting to this in a round about way (framing it differently and using different verbiage), example Lindsey Graham.
Imagine this scenario: The US and Russia have been in a struggle over who has control over several major oil producing nations, i.e. Libya, Venezuela, Iraq and Syria where we have been invading the Russian sphere of influence (all Russian allies or aligned).
If Russia gets tangled up in a major conflict, that makes it more difficult for them to project force as their military, intel services, and logistical capabilities are tied up in this conflict.
With Ukraine you have the Europeans flipping 1/2 of the bill and assuming most of the refugees. The Ukraine is doing near all the bleeding. We are the ones that stand to benefit on the world stage.
As Graham said, “it’s a bargain, the best money we’ve ever spent.” https://www.facebook.com/USSenateDemocrats/videos/republican-senator-lindsey-graham-called-support-for-ukraine-the-best-money-weve/1109326037156941/