“If such a blatant retreat and such a perverted signal of weakness had not been presented to the world (by ditching the tech advantage and missile shield) then perhaps Russia would not have thrown its weight around biting off pieces of Ukraine. Many lives may have been saved.”
Someone gets it here. It’s called a POWER VACUUM and it was not just Obama, but many people on this side that DEMANDED we disengage from Europe. Well, we pretty much did, and given the Europeans are TOTALLY UNABLE to look out for themselves, the Russians marched right in - or at least in their direction, maybe, eventually, right in.
Note true. Ukraine is a very different case from Lithuania or Latvia -- the Ukrainians (like the Belarussians and the Muscowites themselves) are Eastern Slavs. All three have common roots, mutually intelligible languages and they have been ruled by Moscow for centuries both administratively and religiously. Mentally the majorities in the three nations are similar.
Zooming in on Ukraine and the majority speak Russian and were under heavy Soviet rule. In the East they spoke primarily or only Russian while the western part is more mixed.
the "Europeans" as you put it can handle a Russian invasion in terms of military force, but the question is always whether the French, Germans, English would fight when the eastern members of Europe are invaded or whether they would wait until the fighting reaches their borders