[mc32]

I'm not excusing Russian atrocities. We're looking at what enabled this trajectory. Lack of introspection leads to more stupid actions. If France and Britain hadn't demanded the extraction of wealth from WWI losers, lots of things would have fallen differently in history. That does not in any way excuse any of the action taken by any of the actors who made their own choices.

But we have to be careful of what stages we are setting up. another example is the "Mujahudeen". Yes, convenient thorn in the Soviets' ambitions but they would come back to haunt us. It's still their fault for their acts of terror, but we also gave them "life" by setting up the stage for them.