I couldnt care less what someone calls me on a anonymous forum. Adjectives normally come into motion where good enough arguments are lacking. For all i know you could be a dement old guy like Biden.
Except based on my participation so far, everyone can tell I am coherent in written speech.
I have been in the Norgwegian Army myself. Not anything to brag about. Force is for me always the final option, after all other options has been tried first.
As long as you sacrificed a portion of your productive young yrs in uniform, respect for that sacrifice is universal and transcends borders among those who served. But for those who actually served, we know the final result of force: death. As such, it is usually people like us who want force to be the last resort.
Lets just say Cuba wasnt given the freedom to choose to have Soviet missiles in their soil. That for a good reason too. Why Americans cannot allow Russia the same courtesy is for me a mystery.
Again, I refer you back to the 1994 Budapest Agreement where the US, the UK, and Russia persuaded Ukraine to give up 1700 nuclear warheads, and Ukraine agreed. Is that not enough 'courtesy'?
The NATO membership argument is not valid. Even if the 1994 Budapest Agreement is not legally binding, at least at the philosophical level, Ukraine as an independent state have the right to any alliances. In that agreement is:
...to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.
That respect is unconditional and must be unconditional. During the Cold War yrs, Soviet satellite states had conditional respect. Anything they want to do must have Kremlin approval or even directed. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became fully independent so that respect must be unconditional. If I am an independent and sovereign citizen, as long as I do not break any law or even mores, I am allowed to do anything and go anywhere within the confines of that law and/or moral principle. All Ukraine did was reserved the right to petition, and all NATO did was reserved the right to accept. It does not matter if that potentiality is overt or covert. That it was overt is also a courtesy to Russia.
This war between Russia and Ukraine is not about NATO but about Putin wanting Ukraine to return to Russia.
