I agree that NATO is no threat to Russia, but Russia believes that it is. They have laid down some red lines, one of which is that Ukraine will not be part of NATO. Russia considers Ukraine to be within its sphere of influence in much the same way we used the Monroe Doctrine to prevent major powers from establishing any significant presence in the hemisphere. We came as close to nuclear war in our history with the Cuban Missile Crisis. We blockaded Cuba to force the Soviets to withdraw their missiles. Of course, we also offered the concession of removing IRBMs from Turkey.
This war has been going on for over 8 years. The US/NATO coup in 2014 that toppled the duly elected pro-Russian Ukrainian government spawned the separatist movement in the Donbas and sparked the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine to annex Crimea. The Donbas and Crimea are heavily Russian speaking regions. The reaction to the first Russian invasion was muted with little penalty for Russia.
Since 2014 NATO has been encouraging Ukraine to join NATO. Ukraine has participated in NATO military exercises and was given a special status as a quasi-member of NATO in 2020. In November 2021 as Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, we signed a cooperation agreement with Ukraine basically saying we would help defend them in case of an attack. We also stated we supported their entry into NATO despite the many times Russia said that was their red line.
Pure sophistry on China and weapons. We are sending in all kinds of weaponry to Ukraine that could be used by Taiwan to defend their island, including air defense systems and anti-ship weapons. It is going to take years to replenish our stocks.
The US is the world’s biggest debtor. Endless wars have costs us trillions of dollars. We have over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities in the form of Medicare and Social Security. We are just getting started in Ukraine. We are working on the first $100 billion. Zelensky says he needs at least $800 billion to rebuild the country.
Don’t rule out US serviceman dying in Ukraine. I am sure we have advisors inside Ukraine now. As a Vietnam vet, I remember how we got into that war. The law of unintended consequences obtains. Oh, and by the way, there is always the possibility of a nuclear conflict triggered by some inadvertent action.
We need to end this war now.
I appreciate your response and I respect your opinion though I disagree with some of it. The comparisons to Cuba crisis are relevant to the extent that Russia feels threatened but the difference is at the time the leaders of Russia declared the they would crush us where is the actual evidence that NATO ever had plans to crush Russia as the first aggressor. This war is putins fault and Ukraine is a sovereign nation that they invaded. We can argue the “coup” point so should Poland and it’s other neighbors have invaded Ukraine after the pro Russian administration was elected because of fear of Russian future aggression? If Ukraine was so pro Russian would all these Ukrainians be fighting and dying to defeat the Russian invasion? Was the pro Russian election legitimate as the referendums were massively in favor of joining Russia but once unoccupied in Kherson area doesn’t look like massive parts of the population look disappointed in Russian forces being gone. I served almost 40 years in the military and deployed dozens of times and have seen war and it’s effects. I don’t take this stance lightly. I believe Ukraine has the right to self defense. I believe we should be supporting them with weapons and intelligence. I believe that we should give them weapons with greater range to strike targets in Russia that are launching sites for missiles that Russia is launching in its terror campaign on Ukrainian citizens and infrastructure. I know we will disagree on this but I respect your opinion and also want peace. But at what cost? Allow Putin his invasion and territorial gains for “ peace in our time”. History shows that doesn’t end well. There are only bad and worse decisions at this point
Thanks again