Yup. I would only further add that NATO only exists because the Soviet Union (with intercontinental ballistic missiles) once existed. No Soviet Union with nukes, no NATO. Because there would have been no NEED for NATO.aTm wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:41 pm NATO is at its core a defensive alliance/peacekeeping/deterrence force aligned around the United States and the United Kingdom. Russia doesn't want Ukraine to join NATO because it takes them out of their sphere and invites any conflict with their neighbor to become essentially Russia vs the World if the US/UK are drawn in, but far more importantly, IMO, is that Russia does not want a Ukraine aligned with continental Europe (the European Union). Ukraine wanting to be aligned with Europe is what kicked this all off in 2014, not Ukraine wanting to be aligned with NATO.
Yeah, I'm pretty certain that is not something Putin is the least bit concerned about. I mean, why should he even consider any of this? None of this will ever happen in our lifetimes, certainly not in Putin's lifetime. There is no way the European continent will unite and go after Russia with an aggressive military. Europe is now pretty much just museums, coffee houses, hotels, resorts, restaurants, and art galleries. Can they even build a tank anymore?aTm wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:41 pmThe large amount of EU and NATO cross membership also backs them into a corner. They cannot aggressively start any fight with the EU without setting off a war with the entirety of NATO including the USA and the UK who would be called in any defensive war against a NATO member state. Russia however, has no such protection from aggression (as they see it). Should one day in the future, the European continent begin to unite and has an aggressive military there is no such mechanism where the United States and UK would be called to their defense in the same way the US and UK would defend western Europe.
Napoleon and Hitler led nations filled with young people who felt they didn't have enough land for their children and grand-children and saw the vast open space of Russia as room that they are entitled. I think a largely childless continent of secular old people living in old houses with old ideas and marriage-less young people living a life of sexual hedonism and selfish desires (staying in university for ten years studying bullshit they never have to pay for, roaming the continent to "find themselves") will likely never be "invading anyone", NATO or no NATO. I think Europeans, they just want to be left alone. And in the case of the UK (exiting the EU) they want to be TOTALLY alone. The days of yore with European armies numbering in the millions waging war with one another, I think that all ended in the 1940s (and probably with good reason.)
IMHO, Putin does have reason to fear an invasion from a foreign power. But if that invasion comes, it will not be coming from Russia's Western border. It will be coming at them up from their Southern border.
