I am talking about the US/NATO-Russia confrontation…..Russian troops on the Ukraine border. US/NATO facing off on the border was well…..US Navy gunships crowd into the Black Sea and the hard feelings just keep escalting.
I know Russia is NOT our friend…..after the fall of the Soviet Union the animosities lessened and then something happened for those hard feelings to return….
There are four ‘provocations’ that have brought the world to this point….
Western provocation number 1: NATO’s first eastward expansion.
In her memoir “Madame Secretary,” former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of state Madeleine Albright concedes that Clinton administration officials decided already in 1993 to endorse the wishes of Central and East European countries to join NATO. The Alliance proceeded to add Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary in 1998. Albright admitted that Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his associates were extremely unhappy with that development. The Russian reaction was understandable, since the expansion violated informal promises that President George H. W. Bush’s administration had given Moscow when Mikhail Gorbachev had agreed not only to accept a unified Germany but a united Germany in NATO. The implicit quid pro quo was that NATO would not move beyond the eastern border of a united Germany.
Four Western provocations that led to U.S.-Russia crisis today
Diplomacy is dead for the idiots on both sides have their fingers on the triggers of disaster….IMO it is time to bring this war machine known as NATO to an end…..
The possibility of further eastward NATO expansion and the reality of NATO military involvement in Ukraine are major causes of the current Ukraine crisis, but there is a stubborn refusal in the West to acknowledge the alliance’s role in creating the standoff with Russia. Not only are Western governments unwilling to take Russian security concerns seriously, but many in the West also seem determined to ratchet up tensions with Moscow no matter the consequences for European security. The Biden Administration has agreed to discuss relevant issues with the Russian government, but US and allied officials have already ruled out several of the most important concessions as impossible. If Western governments don’t change course soon, they will bear a large part of the responsibility for any escalation that follows.
Neutrality for Ukraine remains the obvious way out of the immediate crisis and closing the door on NATO expansion is in the best interests of all concerned, but this is a path that Western governments have already rejected out of hand. It is a measure of how disconnected US and NATO policies have become from real security interests that Western governments are risking peace in Europe in the name of destabilizing alliance expansion. Instead of asking whether the alliance needs new members, the US and its allies are exposing Ukraine to great danger to vindicate their “right” to join.
Closing the Door on NATO Expansion Is Imperative
We need a peaceful world and without some sort of diplomacy, a lost form of statecraft, this will NEVER be an issue that will end.
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In Saner Thought 
“to take Russian security concerns seriously, ”
Huh ? What possible security concerns should they have from NATO and western Europe. No one is interested in invading Russia and Putin’s claim of the need for security from NATO is ridiculous and mere howling for the Russian people to think Putin is protecting them. Protecting them from what ?Russia is an environmental disaster with land, rivers and lakes full of industrial pollutants, radiation waste and other environmental disasters. Who would want to take over such a mess ? Russia is so corrupt that their own Russian Mafia extorts bribes from everyoneone in the country (including government) in order for people to get any products or services and infrastructure running. It’s as though their mafia is an extra branch of government which everyone must pay tax(bribes) to accomplish anything. Nobody is interested in invading Russia and Putin’s need for security is pure bullshit to invade Ukraine. Why would they want to invade Ukraine anyway ? It really is a poor country that would need Russian subsidies to function if it was cut off from the West. Can’t Putin realize that even the end of the Soviet Union and the loss of the satellite nations was actually a blessing as it was in no way cost effective to dominate the region thus saving Russia billion$ as it had to subsidize Eastern Europe? The troops are there also because the Russian army doesn’t have anything to do or for which to train so Putin’s keeping them busy. And Putin’s bluster is a copy cat ploy that the little twerp in North Korea usus trying to extort concessions from the West.
NATO expansion is just an excuse for the MIC to make even more money. Putin has to respond, even though he knows we have no designs on his country. He just doesn’t want to appear cowed, or weak. Besides, without any realistic option of a nuclear deployment, all the NATO countries combined could not defeat Russia in a land war inside Russian teritory. Learn from history, as you know all too well.
Best wishes, Pete.
Most Americans can only see one side of this issue…..plus they believe the manure spread by the corporate media. chuq
Agree that NATO could not defeat Russia in a conventional land war when the tanks and bombers roll a la 1939 German Blitzkrieg. I never could understand why Russia always insists on military intimidation and coercion. It would make them stronger (and much much richer) if they focused on trade and economic interdependence with NATO countries. Seems that would preserve peace through cooperation and mutual advantage.
Carl, they have a history of foreign aggresion, my friend. Ever since the Tartars invaded, almost every country, including Japan and Britain, France, and Turkey has tried to invade them. Then the Swedes, Finns, Germany, et al. Is it any wonder that the country is so paranoid?
Best wishes, Pete.
BEETLEYPETE
I understand their paranoia to some degree. If a country (Germany) did to my country (Russia) in WW I and WW II , I would be damn sure that such would not happen ever again and I would preserve the strongest military possible to accomplish that. I get it. But Europeans care about the soccer game scores (In Italy the price increase for pasta is the issue) not war. In the US we care about the weekend’s Bar-B-Q, not war.
The Russians will always equate physical security with controlling the access points to their country, this means places such as Belarus and Ukraine as well as Poland, Romania, etc. They have never felt a sense of security (can’t help them there) but they completely ignore the wishes of those people they subdue to protect themselves.
I wish more people understand their concerns….you have hit the nail on the head……be well chuq