3 ms·

It's a lot better not to pick a fight with Russia at all. What is the specific ideological beef with Russia?

• toast0 4y ago
  Ignoring all the cold war stuff (which continues of course, and comes down to is a major economy/military and doesn't fall in line with the western ideals of rule of law, fair elections, free markets/trade, free speech) the specific beef is lack of respect for established teritorial boundaries, especially those of neighbors. Russia picked the fight, US/NATO/EU are just leaning into it. If you want to invade a soverign state (especially one that you've signed treaties about and with), you've got to either do it with some sort of aquiescence of the UN security council, a coalation of several countries with sufficient military, or at the very least, do it quickly and efficiently. If you move in a large convoy with no international support and no fuel supplies, you're going to find the locals well supplied by your global rivals. If your first week or two of operations makes occupation look inevitable in the near term, that illicits a different response; but neither the USSR nor the USA/coalition were able to reform Afghanistan into what they wanted. Asymetric insurgency with outside support is almost certainly guaranteed.