“...But for Russia, having NATO and the US set up on their border in Ukraine is an existential threat. They aren’t threatening us, we are them...”
This is demonstrably false. If Russia was worried about the DEFENSIVE alliance of NATO on their borders, they should not have driven Finland to join NATO. Russia has a history of land grabs from Finland. And Sweden had a long and proud history of neutrality and yet Putin’s belligerence drove Sweden to abandon its traditional position and join NATO. Putin said, “Russia knows no borders” so how can NATO even be on their borders? Putin sent armored columns into the Republic of Georgia in a blatant land grab. Russia has a tradition of grabbing pieces of Georgia going back to Czarist times. Sochi, home of the Russian Winter Olympics site, was a Georgian town before Russia stole it.
And as for murders, your little ugly leprechaun Putin, was jealous of the handsome Boris Nemtsov, so he had him murdered near the Kremlin walls. Of course, Nemtsov was exposing Putin’s corruption and decadence too. Then your ugly little sickly man murdered the handsome Alexander Navalny. And you have the gall to say Russia has elections (YES, WITH DEAD OPPONENTS!!!!).
Do you still pretend to be a Texan? That’s a laugh!
NATO is not a defense alliance when it offensively attacked Libya, offensively attacked Serbia...
You argue using emotional slogans, not facts as you claim/pretend to have.
We have been trying to reform NATO post Cold war (the real push started with Rumsfeld), and while that was necessary regards the terrorist and asymmetrical threats today, we also have turned NATO from a purely defensive to an organization with offensive potential.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya That was offensive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia Offensive
Russia does not see us as honoring any agreements, and frankly they are right. We will change our position and break a promise as fast as an administration changes out in the White House. Promises made by Congress and administration X are not honored by their successor Y.
Once NATO sets up in Ukraine, there is no turning back the clock and if we suddenly change our mind as with missile defense, the ballistic missile treaty, or whatever else, Russia has the world’s most powerful military alliance in their border, backed by the US which alone is ~ 2 times their military manpower (before the Ukraine war surge).
It’s an unacceptable situation we shoved Russia in and frankly you or I if Russian would have done the same thing they did. It’s “false outrage” to pretend like what they did is a surprise or wrong.
It all comes back to this, which you avoid talking about: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/
At that point, we put Russia in a position where they can articulate a security threat for themselves. We can’t, they can.