The excuses for Russia begin:
The causes of the unfolding crisis in Ukraine are many, but most fundamentally its roots can be found in an enormously consequential decision made by the United States and its allies in the early 1990s. Faced with a strategic challenge of constructing a new security architecture for post-Cold War Europe, the decision was made to embark on a program of gradual NATO expansion to the east. ...
Russians concluded that NATO expansion was directed first and foremost at containing Russia militarily and politically, and Moscow has been unambiguously and passionately opposed to the process since its inception. Today, the Russian political elite is virtually unanimous in viewing NATO expansion as an acute threat to Russian national security. [emphasis added]
Boo effing hoo. Why Russian elites' mental health issues should be something we should have to retreat from is beyond me. Let them get therapy. Or self-medicate into a drunken stupor.
The idea that it is illegitimate for former Soviet colonies to want to join an alliance to protect them from becoming assets of Moscow again is disgusting.
The idea that the NATO alliance militaries of civil servants-in-uniform (with only a few actual fighting troops in the mix) pose a national security threat to Russia is nonsense. The Russians actually complain that our small missile defense plans for Europe would get in the way of Russia's ability to nuke Europe!
We have the bulk of real military power in NATO, and we will only have two ground combat brigades in Germany after we finish redeployments.
In what world is NATO a military threat to Russia?
We should not give in to this insane nonsense. And having a college professor spout the insane nonsense doesn't make it any better.
