Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Zorax, I'm leaning to Chomsky on that point. Charles A. Kupchan, and a majority of other expert opinions i've read are basically in the same boat.

NATO meant well in opening its doors to Ukraine, yet good intentions have again stumbled on geopolitical realities. To be sure, Mr. Putin had the opportunity to settle his objections to Ukraine’s membership in NATO at the negotiating table. Last June, President Biden admitted that whether Ukraine joins the alliance “remains to be seen .. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/biden-says-it-remains-be-seen-if-ukraine-will-be-n1270807 ”; more recently, President Emmanuel Macron of France floated .. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/world/europe/ukraine-russia-finlandization.html .. the idea of “Finlandization” for Ukraine — effective neutrality — and proposals for a formal moratorium .. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/10/how-to-get-what-we-want-from-putin-526859 .. on further enlargement circulated. Mr. Putin could have picked up these leads, but he instead opted for war — and now owns the resulting death and destruction.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168521246

Neither one of them , or all the others who take a somewhat similar position, are absolving Putin from his primary responsibility of being responsible for this war.

Should we summarily dismiss all opinions which in some fashion give some justification for Putin's position? Don't think so. Chomsky there was talking generally re major power relationships. Kupchan put in more the way most all other experts see it. i think. There would be differences of course but i think saying in looking at Putin's position on Ukraine consider the U.S. and the Cuba.n missile crisis is fair.

""It’s true that Moscow’s dismay at the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in NATO most likely is fed in part by nostalgia for the geopolitical heft of the Soviet days, Mr. Putin’s paranoia about a “color revolution” arising in Russia, and mystical delusions about unbreakable civilizational links between Russia and Ukraine. But it is also true that the West erred in dismissing Russia’s legitimate security concerns about NATO setting up shop on the other side of its 1,000-mile-plus border with Ukraine""

I don't see Chomsky in that in any manner justifying Putin's war against Ukraine.