[kelnos]

Is it any wonder that Ukraine wanted to join NATO, given what happened with Crimea?

I'll make no judgment as to whether Crimea and its people are better off as a part of Russia or Ukraine (they very well might be better off a part of Russia), but invading and annexing is just not ok. (Same as if China decided to do the same to Taiwan.)

I just don't see the problem with NATO expansion. As a parent poster pointed out, it's a defensive alliance; if Russia has a problem with other countries promising to defend each other in the case that Russia wants to get aggressive, that's, well... Russia's problem.

[autosharp]

> Is it any wonder that Ukraine wanted to join NATO, given what happened with Crimea?

You have the chronology exactly backwards.

[CRConrad]

Nope. "Is it any wonder that X, given Y?" says nothing about chronology. "Is it any wonder that she wanted to divorce him, given that he killed her?" would be an oxymoron under your erroneous reasoning; with your logic she would have to be dead before she could want a divorce. To reasonable people, the murder was obviously just the culmination of a long chain of events.