[Basket_of_Deplorables]

He’s absolutely right. Many top experts said Russia would not accept a NATO county mon their border, that they would go to war first.

Putin himself said it.

Biden and the Obama band together just decided they knew better. They could have prevented it.

Newsflash: Ukraine will either end up a neutral country, or part of Russia. But never NATO. And the window for being neutral is pretty much closed.

[LouieFisk]

“And the window for being neutral is pretty much closed.”
—
The only probable option for Z to hopefully have something resembling a gig and country left would be to heed some old advice:

“Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

[caww]

But people are in denial....they need a little guy fighting the big bad wolf. You can see that in the cartoons etc. going around now.

BTW Hillary and others warmed the plate for the Big Bad Russia.......long before this war. So the public was already primed to see view Russia as the problem in this situation.

[Chgogal]

Bull. There is no excuse for the carnage Putin perpetrating upon Ukraine. The US/NATO can attack Russia at anytime no matter where her border is.

[blueplum]

While the 'experts' arguments may be pertinent to 1950, I'd argue, in this day and age of perpetual peace amongst European neighbors, it shouldn't matter if a Nato nation is bordering a non-Nato nation since neither would be contemplating war with each other. Russia is so large, it's not like they have to expand to accommodate a population bursting at the seams or have experienced such an increase in exports their existing ports can no longer handle the burden so they have to steal their neighbors’ ports. Even if they do take Ukraine's ports, Turkey is still holding the gateway keys to the Mediterranean via the Straits. And, if they do take Ukraine, that puts them solidly against a REAL Nato nation - Poland.

So if distance from Nato is the objective, invading Ukraine is a weird way to go about it. Making this a senseless conflict and a waste of Russian resources. Putin's talking out of both sides of his mouth, claiming to be fighting 'nazis and nationalists' in Ukraine, while acting like a nazi and enshrining Russian nationalism out of the other side.

It's incredulous that an argument would be made that the US and/or Nato are causative. Blame the information age, but desire for freedom is going to overtake every nation that doesn't have it, including Russia, and invading Ukraine isn't going to stop that desire.

[Tallguy]

Newsflash: Ukraine will either end up a neutral country, or part of Russia. But never NATO. And the window for being neutral is pretty much closed.

I could be wrong, but I don't see Russia garrisoning the country of Ukraine after the conventional fighting ends. In the long-run the cheaper course would be to install a government 'pre-approved' by Russia and let them ride herd on the Ukrainian people.