No but apparently you are.
My question, in a world where Putin decided to leave Crimea be, would be at more or less risk of war today than we are?
I will make this point then signing off for the evening. This is a legitimate good faith argument... and you can choose to respond in good faith or you can choose to further insult me. Up to you.
The reason why my default position is "I would rather a country not invade another country" is because that action will always result in escalation and retaliation (rightly or wrongly).
The Crimea invasion led to a bunch of international sanctions and weapons gifts to Ukraine - that may not have happened otherwise.
Those actions led to a bigger invasion in Ukraine.
Those actions led to bigger escalations from the US and NATO.
Those actions lead to Russia alligning itself with China.
Those actions lead to US sanctioning them further.
Those actions lead to China invading Taiwan
Those actions lead to US intervening.
And on and on we go.
I'm not saying the US didn't escalate before Crimea. In fact I firmly believe we did. I'm saying - if given the choice or Russia doing a sensible retaliation or not, I would prefer they not. When we were hit on 9/11... we made sensible retaliations that lead to disasters everywhere
Back in all the Iran hysteria... I frequently stated that I do not
blame Iran for wanting a nuclear bomb... it made sense for them to want to protect themselves. But that does not mean I
wanted them to get a nuclear weapon?
Do you understand where I am coming from logically? Maybe I'm wrong and naiive... but my desire for less war is rooted in wanting less war.