Posted on 02/28/2022 4:36:17 AM PST by MtnClimber
During Thursday's speech announcing ever greater sanctions on Russia, Joe Biden claimed, "The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, without provocation, without justification, without necessity." This was a Western chauvinist point of view that does not take into account Russia's security concerns and historic grievances since the Soviet Union's defeat in the Cold War.
There is another reading of history — one from a Russian chauvinist point of view — that Western governments and media turn a blind eye to, and that has inevitably led to the current conflict and the specter of a much wider one.
Putin recounted an event during his extensive pre-invasion speech on February 21. In 2000, when he first became president of Russia, he had proposed to then–U.S. president Bill Clinton that Russia join NATO and be integrated into Europe. Russia was an economic basket case after decades of ruinous communist rule and its military a shell of its former greatness. It was an opportunity for America to seize on its Cold War victory, similar to how we had capitalized on our victories over Germany and Japan after World War II.
We can speculate as to why this opportunity was squandered, but I suspect that Europe's leaders feared competing economically with a newly liberated Russia and that America's defense industry was reluctant to lose a geostrategic foe that had justified decades of huge military budgets.
What is not in question is that the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, and France had, in 1991, promised Russia that NATO would not encroach on Russia if Russia withdrew its troops from Eastern Europe. That promise was broken just eight years later, when Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were granted NATO membership. Five years after that, seven more countries in Eastern Europe...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
And there are reports that the Biden administration told China that Ukraine was joining NATO, knowing Chna would inform Putin. It seems like this invasion may have been provoked.
Russian security concerns were considered and rejected in writing. Putin doesn’t get to tell sovereign nations who they align with.
It’s total fiction that any agreement was signed with Russia to exclude the enslaved nations in the east from NATO membership.
That propaganda is on here all the time. No evidence of a treaty, pact or agreement in writing is ever provided. Because it didn’t happen.
“This was a Western chauvinist point of view that does not take into account Russia’s security concerns and historic grievances since the Soviet Union’s defeat in the Cold War.”
And NATO and Europe do what they do because of their security concerns and history vis-a-vis belligerent and expansionist Soviet Union/Russia. See how that works, Vlad? The rest of Europe gets a vote too.
Poor baby Putin. He was worried Ukraine was going to invade him.
Good article, I agree with most of Jim Daws points.
Might be a good idea to read the linked article. It links to stories documenting what it says, e.g.
— During the meeting between East Germany and West Germany, plus the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, the nations made it clear that the alliance would not expand beyond the Elbe river, the document quoted the German envoy as saying.
“We cannot offer NATO membership to Poland and others,” he added, though Warsaw joined the alliance about half a decade later. —
“He was worried Ukraine was going to invade him.”
—
Do da words “Cuban Missile Crisis” mean anything t’ ya?
Putin’s war is making a wonderful trailer for Jo Jo upcoming State of the Union Show.
“the nations made it clear that the alliance would not expand”
No treaty or agreement was signed by EU,NATO, nor the US.
Russian propaganda.
You might not agree with an adversary (Russia in this case), but to dismiss and ignore their legitimate security concerns is dangerously stupid. It is always wise to look at a war or a potential war from the other side’s perspective, if only to improve the effectiveness of your own efforts.
Russia is not Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or Serbia, easy (and safe) for America and NATO to slap around. Russia has the most powerful nuclear force on the planet. Miscalculation over Ukraine can rapidly escalate into full-blown war and a nuclear exchange. For Russia, Ukraine joining NATO is a redline worth going to war over. We ignore this at our own peril.
In 1962, we already had medium-range nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in Turkey. When the USSR obtained a client state (Cuba) 100 miles from Florida, they thought it would be fair turnabout to also have their own MRBMs in range of America. (ICBMs were not yet available.) When the missiles were discovered in Cuba, the result was that America was outraged, rightly, and we very nearly had a nuclear exchange.
It was not “JFK backed down Khrushchev!” as American media portrayed it. Diplomats and generals on both sides later wrote that we came within a hair-breadth of a full nuclear exchange. In the deal that was worked out, we also (quietly) removed our MRBMs from Turkey. Part of the agreement was that the USSR would not crow about how they forced us to move our missiles out of Turkey.
Today Russia looks at Ukraine, and they see it as the 1942 invasion route of the Nazis, which came very close to cutting off their Caspian oil, which would have caused the rapid collapse and defeat of the USSR. The idea of NATO forces prepositioned across Ukraine, directly on the Russian border, armed with tanks and MRBMs, is a redline they have repeatedly said they could not tolerate.
The Russians think: at least the Germans had to fight their way to Ukraine and and then across it. How much worse to have NATO forces already in Ukraine, poised in striking range with missiles and tanks, ready to strike Moscow in minutes, and occupy or destroy the Caspian oil fields in days?
We teased Ukraine into believing that if they were compliant with American, EU and NATO desires, they’d eventually join both groups. Instead, Russia was provoked into removing the possibility of NATO forces ever being positioned in Ukraine by their own invasion. This was all entirely foreseeable.
Imagine Khrushchev saying to JFK: “Screw you, our missiles will stay in Cuba.” It would have meant nuclear war. This is how dire the Russians consider even the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO as a full partner.
We ignore their perspective at our own peril.
Putin saw a weakness in Biden. Biden pretty much told Putin - you are free to invade, we will just put up some pro forma sanctions.
Even now he is “leading from behind” = doing nothing. He probably thought, it will be over in couple of days, and in couple of months we will be back to the good old ways.
What changed the equation was the brave fight of Ukrainian people and especially president Zelensky.
Now, it is rather impossible to sit back and do nothing. However, Biden is still trying to do just that!
It is the European NATO members, who are taking leadership in this case. They definitely feel, if they do nothing, they are the next ones!
LOL. This is comical, when I consider that the U.S. has spent my entire lifetime carrying out intelligence and military operations against “sovereign nations” all over the world.
Russia originated as a Grand duchy of Muscovy. Just a rather small area around Moscow. Everything else was conquered by arms, just to “improve the borders” or “address legitimate security concerns”.
When, and only when, Russia returns to it original “Moscow and environs” borders, one could start discussing her legitimate security concerns.
The EU is going to make this a hot war.
Excellent summation.
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