[themitigating]

That's fair. Maybe it's because I only qualify "after" with "only" if I'm making some point.

[s1artibartfast]

I agree that there is a second part, conditionally. It Implies that you would not have run if you had not been pulled over- which is true!

The same holds true for Russia. They would not have demanded payment in rubles if they had access to Swift.

The problem is that people confuse conditionality and moral justification.

I would not have run if they never pulled me over is no more of an excuse then I would never have shot him if he didn't look at me weird.

Something can be conditional and true but still a bad reason.