Quote:
Originally Posted by tmccarthy
"Why then did NATO need to expand Eastward ?"
I've never known an answer for that and I've been looking back into that for an answer since the War in Ukraine started a few weeks ago. I stopped following news re international politics in the early 2000s so I had a lot of catching up to do. My last memory from the early 2000s was hearing the Baltics states had been admitted to NATO and thinking, "that sounds crazy, that is exactly how you start a war in Europe." I assumed the answer for NATO expansion was going to be the left and the right in American politics continuing policies from the cold war. Questions like, "Why did Bill Clinton initiate NATO expansion?", "Why did Barrack Obama of all people take such a leading role in this confrontation?" has led me to see that the liberal left this time actually had the leading role. Just after I posted this a few days ago I was pointed to the "Wolfowitz Doctrine" from the early 90s and now see part of the conservative rights side. It is clear to me now that US policy for the last 30 years has been at least not the best path to achieve peace, largely misguided and even dangerous. The possible conclusion was so sad and disappointing I took the last few days off from exhaustion.
My conclusion is something like this: Since the end of the cold war for 30 years three groups in Washington from within Neo-conservatives, the liberal left, and members of Republican and Democratic presidential administrations with ethnic/Jewish ties to eastern Europe have used NATO expansion in order to defend Eastern Europe and drive America into a confrontation with Russia.
I've just learned most of this in the last few weeks or even days and believe me, I know it's a lot and I've been struggling with it the entire time. None of my family or friends want to even hear that I'm uncomfortable with the amount of possible responsibility America may have in this war. Here's a playlist of sources if you want to look into this. Senator Bill Bradely (D) video from 2008 is probably the best explanation I've found re the history and issues with the expansion of NATO.
I don't know what good this will do now, but since we are talking about WW3 and nuclear war I want to at least try and understand what's really going on.
Expansion of NATO military alliance playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...v5N5YcJDJFIPa1
-Tim McCarthy
"another U.S citizen" and veteran US Army |
I do agree with just about everything in your analysis. We, the U.S certainly could have handled this much better than we did. There really isn't a lot we can do about this right now, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catfish
So what about the russian narrative that the Ukraine would have been overrun by "Nazis"?
The word "denazify" appears in russian propaganda since the first russian invasion into Ukraine in 2014.
Putin's propaganda is targeted towards Russians for whom remembrance of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany remains perhaps the single most powerful element of a unifying national identity.
Putin is looking to the past to create motivation in the present.
"What the regime is doing is using the memory of the war, and the very deep feelings it arouses to legitimise its military actions not only in Ukraine but in many other places as well."
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I found the terms like “ denazify “ to be ridiculous and very offensive. I assume as part of the Russians overall “ Maskirova, “ This language was to try to unify the greater part of Russia to their criminal invasion, as you have mentioned. Usage of that term implies, as far as I'm concerned, that Putin is living in the past with a desire to re-create the former Soviet Union.
I agree with everything you have both presented.
