Vladimir Putin's actions are criminal and immoral, but that doesn't change the fact that the sheer bewildering bullheadedness of American foreign policy is what ultimately brought us to this point. Putin's been saying since 2007 that Ukraine joining NATO was an absolute red line for Russia. For fifteen years he's repeated that point, over and over, and getting more and more openly baffled and exasperated that the west seemed not to believe or hear him. But the west just kept pushing and pushing, and making assurances to Ukraine that they would one day join NATO. Even though it was incredibly obvious that they never had any intention of doing any such thing, the west for some fucking reason just couldn't bring themselves to just say so, to do any kind of real diplomacy, to recognize any of Russia's obvious red lines and core interests. None of America's actions leading up to this had anything remotely to do with it's national interests. We just kept saying that Ukraine would join NATO, based on a half-baked and unclear moral principle, which we never had any intention of living up to. We acted like a child playing with an action figure and making up a nonsensical story, only the action figure was Ukraine. America treated Ukraine like a toy and now they're paying the price.
Vladimir Putin's actions are criminal and immoral, but that doesn't change the fact that the sheer bewildering bullheadedness of American foreign policy is what ultimately brought us to this point. Putin's been saying since 2007 that Ukraine joining NATO was an absolute red line for Russia. For fifteen years he's repeated that point, over and over, and getting more and more openly baffled and exasperated that the west seemed not to believe or hear him. But the west just kept pushing and pushing, and making assurances to Ukraine that they would one day join NATO. Even though it was incredibly obvious that they never had any intention of doing any such thing, the west for some fucking reason just couldn't bring themselves to just say so, to do any kind of real diplomacy, to recognize any of Russia's obvious red lines and core interests. None of America's actions leading up to this had anything remotely to do with it's national interests. We just kept saying that Ukraine would join NATO, based on a half-baked and unclear moral principle, which we never had any intention of living up to. We acted like a child playing with an action figure and making up a nonsensical story, only the action figure was Ukraine. America treated Ukraine like a toy and now they're paying the price.