Our weapons were mostly in Germany, FAR FROM THE RUSSIAN BORDER.
RUSSIAN WEAPONS WERE ON UKRAINES BORDER and they used them to invade Ukraine.
See the difference?
There was no other reason to expand NATO
ONCE AGAIN. Finland is a perfect example. 20% of Finland was seized by the Russians in WW2 with Finland forced to sign a neutrality agreement.
As the leader of Finland would you continue to rely on those agreements after Putin shredded all his agreements with Ukraine to honor its borders or would you quickly join NATO?
Thats the reason NATO has expanded, Russia with Putin is a threat to its neighbors, to their very existence.
Until 2014, Russia wasn’t a threat. It wanted to talk and we told them they were on their own.
We would have been smarter to talk to them and the whole Ukraine war, if our leaders were really trying to avoid that, would have been avoided.
The Soviet Union is modern Russia. Two different beasts.
NATO didnt’ need to expand to protect them. We would have only had to tell Russia to leave them alone or else.