I think Mearsheimer’s pre-war thesis was correct, and that the war could have been avoided by the West taking a clear stand for a neutral Ukraine. Further, I b

I think Mearsheimer’s pre-war thesis was correct, and that the war could have been avoided by the West taking a clear stand for a neutral Ukraine. Further, I believe that there was no real chance for Ukraine to join NATO post 2014. It would have been almost an impossible sell to existing members, as accepting a country in a hot conflict with a nuclear superpower was a non-starter for virtually all the NATO allies. So, in my view, this whole business of Ukraine’s NATO membership was a head fake from the beginning, intended primarily to bait Russia into a war they could never win. A bait they idiotically jumped on. This, of course, does not exculpate Russia from the crimes of aggression. It’s a state run by a criminal oligarchy that has almost succeeded in critically and irrevocably corrupting key western democracies (there’s clear evidence linking Russia to both Trump and Brexit, with trail of money pointing to corruption). This war showed that Russia was more powerful and globally relevant in peace than in (conventional) war. Their global influence was much more effective through projection of soft power, various means of subversion, and deployment of limited force (like in Syria and Africa). They certainly appeared more competent.