It wasn’t NATO or the United States that was driving the eastward expansion of the Alliance, it was Russia.old salt wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:07 pmYou tend to leap over entire decades in your analysis. I was happy to have survived & helped win the first cold war. I did not want to see another. We did not need to do it twice. Remember glasnost & peristroika, then the reset button ? Bush (the elder) & Baker meant it when they told Gorbachev not one inch further east. Whose brother are you talking about ?a fan wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 9:39 pmWhat in heaven's name makes you think that a single poster here supported Bush's game of Global Cop, mucking with Ukraine? Followed by his brother playing the same game?
Out of everyone here? YOU are the most likely supporter of these games. Gotta keep those sea lanes open, right?
More specifically, the complete and utter internal chaos in Russia during the 1990s and early 2000s, the two Chechen Wars, tensions over Kaliningrad … if you’re a small nation like Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania watching a giant bear acting violently, irrationally, and unpredictably on your doorstep, wouldn’t you want more security guarantees?
If Russia had developed in the 1990s into a peaceful democracy that was a force for stability, calm, and economic prosperity in the region, do you think all of those Eastern European nations would have sought membership in NATO?
Instead, Russia was perceived to be, and actually was, a malignant agent of chaos, atrocities, instability, and war crimes.
After watching the war crimes committed by Russia in Chechnya, what sane Eastern European nation wouldn’t seek NATO membership if that were a possibility?
How can you be so blind in your understanding of history?
DocBarrister