Not to defend Putin, because he's a murdering despot who needs to be pulled out of the Kremlin by an angry mob and hung from the Kerch Bridge, but NATO has been expanding pretty steadily since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Countries such as Albania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and others, were part of that Iron Curtain. They are now part of NATO.

One could make a pretty rational argument that NATO's expansion gave birth to the sentiments that led to Putin. There had been others before him in the Russian Duma during the oligarchy's early days: men like Zhirinovsky, who would have happily invaded Ukraine, as well, had they won the presidency.

Imagine how American Republicans would behave if Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean all came under the political umbrella of Russia or China. It would make Trumpism look enlightened.

To fully understand why something happens in current events, we need to fully grasp history. Ignoring history does a disservice to readers who may have missed some of these events because they weren't born yet, and schools still generally give a rah-rah view of U.S. foreign policy.

I agree with most of this article. I also think it's too late to appease Putin by withholding membership from countries like Finland. That ship has sailed. He's lost any right to negotiation. He actually lost that right when he invaded Crimea, which we basically just let him have, which is another reason he thought he could go ahead and take Kiev, too.

So let's yell about Putin. He's a sociopathic murderer. But let's keep our politicians accountable, too, lest it all happens again somewhere else.