The Soviet Union had collapsed, the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe were free, the world balance of power had changed; the cold war was over. Russia was starting to work with the US and Europe as a friend.
But then policy makers and Europe decided to take advantage of the situation and expand NATO right up to Russia's borders. Was there a threat current or future that caused this move? No. It was instead a visceral desire to contain Russia; a never again vow. Russia would not even be allowed to have a reasonable zone of influence in Eastern Europe, such as the US has in the Americas.
But by so doing, the west embarked on a new cold war. There was no question that Russia would react negatively to this move. It was an in-your-face aggression prompted by the weakness of Russia.
Putin became obsessed with preventing Russia from being hemmed in. He reached out to China to secure his southeastern flank. He fought the war in Chechnya and the Crimea.
And then he clearly made moves indicating that he was planning on invading Ukraine. There was lots of rhetoric about the Russian people and mother Russia, but it was mostly really all about stopping the accretion of NATO.
The question is, given these basic facts, why didn't President Biden and the EU, prior to the Russian invasion, offer to keep the Ukraine out of NATO in exchange for Russia guaranteeing that it would never invade Ukraine? The Ukraine did say it was not pursuing NATO membership.
This would have been no loss to the west, and a huge gain for Putin. But Biden and other western leaders don't like to appear to give in to bullies like Putin. And they certainly don't like giving Putin a big win domestically.
So Ukraine is being bombarded and lives destroyed because of a desire by Biden and others to save face.
But at it's core, it's much the same mentality that has always viewed as a friend a country that was friendly to US interests regardless how barbaric and undemocratic its leadership, and to see as a foe any country that was not friendly to our interests, regardless how democratically elected they were. It is the desire for empire, not in the old sense but in tactical control and influence.
But we aren't willing to go to war to defend this empire. We instead use other means such as sanctions. That's because it's really not about national interests in any true sense, certainly not one that the American people would support.
And so the Ukrainian people suffer. They are caught in the middle of the West and Russia not wanting to loose face and power, but the West not willing to put its military force into the equation and so leaving the ground to Russia.
