It's more of a question would the U.S. invade IF Russia put some army bases there or if Mexico/Canada said they will work with the Russians (hitchens point). Isn't that entirely why Cuba was invaded (i think) cause they were cosying up too much with the soviet union?
NATO is a one purpose organisation - which is effectively defence against Russian aggression. If there was none, states wouldn't bother joining NATO and making large financial contributions. Look at Sweden and Finland. No interest in joining NATO until Russian goes on military manoevres and now they're applying to join
Cuba is a bad example, because it was siting nuclear missiles. There is no question of the US siting nuclear missiles in Ukraine or Georgia
Ahhh…..so what you’re saying is that NATO (as a one purpose organisation) has to have an enemy (Russia) to even exist ? Is that why Russia was never allowed to join in the early 2000’s ? We need an enemy to defend against ?
It seems Putin didn't apply because he wasn't prepared to wait behind other countries applying to join: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule
True but some are less guilty than others. There's a reason why all the ex-Soviet blocks wanted to join NATO and the EU, and why a country like Belarus with a tyrant for a leader and a system of oppression for its civilians remained allied to Russia.
Then I suggest you write to Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, East Germany etc etc and tell them they were better off governed by Russia. Don't expect a prompt reply
Avoiding my point spectacularly Goldie…..You always play to type, you right wing apologist. Was that prompt enough
I'm not sure what your point was. I'd already agreed neither side was without fault. Just that one side - NATO - was more without fault than the other, Russia.
So in your opinion, it’s ok to ignore torture, state murder and oppression… because it’s not as bad as the torture, state murder and oppression elsewhere ? As long as the torturers are on “our side” it’s ok ?
No, I've already said, NATO is not without fault. Turkey is an Achillies heel if you like, but was taken in as a member for strategic and pragmatic reasons. But that does not mean that summing up the whole, Russia does not have very much to answer for, as is evidenced by the flight to the West of virtually all the ex-Soviet Block countries. They wanted independence, prosperity and freedom
according to the article by hitchens, theres some nuclear missiles sitting in poland and they were actively pursuing Ukraine for them.
That must be "Hitchen's truth", because there's no evidence that Poland has nuclear weapons (although they'd like them), still less that any were going to Ukraine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/05/poland-us-nuclear-wars-russia-putin-ukraine Hitchens is a contrarian who lives in a fantasy world.
