Dealing as the U.S. has with Putin, how could he not be paranoid? From L. Reichard White at lewrockwell.com:
As maverick U.S. Arms Inspector Scott Rutter pointed out — and a few other sharp folks — the ones like Ron Paul and Prof. John Mearsheimer, Jimmy Dore with Matt Tiabbi , and a few others who managed to duck being disappeared, censored and otherwise cancelled — and still got published excplained, the really stupid Russian invasion of Ukraine could have easily been completely avoided.
And watching the current negotiations, it looks as if that same easy solution may still (March16, 2022) clear up the situation.
You see, as the folks above explain it, the problem has been caused by “we” in the West. Now that may sound batshit crazy if you’ve been victimized by U.S. warmongering propaganda, but stick with me here.
Weapons Inspector Ritter put it something like this: “To avoid the whole Ukraine Fiasco, all Ukraine had to do was to agree not to join NATO.”
That’s exactly what Putin and the Russians have been saying, quite patiently, loudly, and persistently, for the past several months. In fact, ever since U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III etc., with the equivalent of a gentleman’s hand-shake, promised Mikhail Gorbachov in 1990 pretty much that “NATO would not take even one step closer to Russia’s western border.”
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 