[rdrock]

You either toe the party line or you are an enemy troll is what we are going for then.

Putin is a bully and has a lot to answer for, assasinations and election meddling including. That does not absolve west of its sins or make what they are doing right in this situation. This was a totally un-necessary conflict at this time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4

As much as they would like for it to be so, Russia is not North Korea. The result of all these sanctions would be a Russia China alliance. An opening for China to invade Taiwan, founding of competing and fragmented global institutions, alternatives to SWIFT, because nations are watching and no one likes to be vurnerable.

> NATO exists to protect states from the terror of bully-states like Russia. Fat lot of protection it offered Ukraine while being the primary subject of contention.

> clamoring to get in A couple of inconsequential states wanting in while the major players wanting to chart their own course in defence is telling you the direction it is headed in.

[emptysongglass]

The Mearsheimer video is Russian apologism disguised as realpolitik. It has nothing to do with reality. One needs only read the ravings of Putin on the essential unity of Ukraine and Russia (the manic delusions of a spurned ex) to understand how dated Mearsheimer is.

> A couple of inconsequential states wanting in while the major players wanting to chart their own course in defence is telling you the direction it is headed in.

You'll need to point out specifically which major players are running away from NATO because NATO has never been stronger than now at the height of Russian predation. See Germany's revised defense budget or the increases of defense budgets across the board of all other NATO members in response to Putin's war.