Originally Posted by
AfricanBluebird
Thing is... most on here, as thoughtful and intelligent adults can hold a number of conflicting opinions at the same time....
NATO has been pretty useless for 20 years, overreached and provide protectionism to larger member states to continue to control oil and infrastructure - BUT still offers some protection to members so sovereign states have every right to join, or not.
We can be critical (I have and continue to be) of our own governments who 'rained down bombs on Libya, Serbia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan' by NATO and its member countries' and STILL be critical of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
We can also be critical and cynical of our own governments and NATO's lack of response in Yemen and other countries and still see Russia as a bad actor under Putin.
We can also all acknowledge that we have failed for years to counter Russia's misbehaviour - funding of terrorists, appeasing bad actors, funding misinformation, buying political favours, laundering money and poisoning people on British soil.
All of the above positions can be true and coexist in our minds. We don't have to appease Russia's behaviour because our governments have also acted badly.