Nonsense. NATO didn't just move into the former Soviet nations and set up shop; to the contrary, NATO expanded specifically at the request of those sovereign nations who knew, better than anyone, that Russia was still dangerous as fuck. To ignore that is to ignore their right to autonomy while hypocritically championing the same right for the Russian speaking population of eastern Ukraine.
That said, it's not my position that relations with post-Soviet Russia could not have been handled better. I simply reject the idea that NATO expansion forced Putin to invade Ukraine.
But your analogy would only be valid if Mexico had asked Xi to build a Chinese military base in Mexico, which they would never do because unlike Russia's neighbors, they're not worried about being invaded by their stronger neighbor.
I downvoted you for being a condescending piece of shit. Can't speak for others. There was a way to make your point without being a condescending asshole, but that's not what you chose.
I like how you take a Russian quote and then try to somehow twist it to be about how Ukraine defines victory. It's a blatantly dishonest bit of casuistry, yet here you are heavily upvoted. It's an unfortunate indicator of the kinds of people populating this thread. We're overrun by idiots and liars.
It's not just the US though. The European powers are far more firmly committed. It's not at all clear that the rest of NATO will simply walk away if/when the US does. Especially the former Soviet nations; this is not a fucking game to them. The loss of US support would be huge, but I don't see a universe in which the Europeans just roll over for Putin once the US loses interest.
You call it "lazy," I call it time management. No one has the time or intellectual bandwidth to respond to all the deeply stupid comments on the Internet, so downvotes give us a quick and easy to register our opinion and move on.
I didn't get "convinced there are so many bots around," you absolute idiot. My point was only that if and when idiots like you use talking points that are identical to those coming out of Putin's Kremlin, people can be forgiven for mistaking you for a bot.
What part about this do you not understand? How can I dumb it down enough for you?
I dislike this painting of all Americans with a broad brush, as if we are somehow collectively responsible for the fact that our system was deliberately designed to be almost impossible to change, and as if Trump would ever be an issue if the popular vote actually mattered.
Peppers actually originated in the new world. They do not grow well at higher latitudes and are an excellent way of disguising the taste of slightly spoiled food, which is much more of a problem in the tropics.
Yeah, it's so strange that people confuse you with a Kremlin bot when you repeatedly spew the same fucking bullshit talking points as the bots themselves.
Nonsense. NATO didn't just move into the former Soviet nations and set up shop; to the contrary, NATO expanded specifically at the request of those sovereign nations who knew, better than anyone, that Russia was still dangerous as fuck. To ignore that is to ignore their right to autonomy while hypocritically championing the same right for the Russian speaking population of eastern Ukraine.
That said, it's not my position that relations with post-Soviet Russia could not have been handled better. I simply reject the idea that NATO expansion forced Putin to invade Ukraine.