this author asks: is putin paranoid, and then proceeds to provide evidence on the subject;

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.”

At that 1990 A.D. point in history, NATO’s eastern border was about 1,000 miles from Russia’s largest city, St. Petersburg. That gentleman’s hand-shake agreement greatly facilitated the breakup of the old USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.)

NATO’s Eastern border is now only about 100 miles from St. Petersburg. It’s clear that one party to that hand-shake agreement wasn’t a gentleman.

Ok, fine, but what’s the big deal with NATO 100 miles from Russia? And what’s with Ukraine??

The first thing you might want to think about is “launch on warn.”

During the “Cold War,” with both the U.S. and USSR all nuked-up — over 60,000 warheads between them — they developed a vocabulary. Door-to-door U.S. to Russia — and vice-versa — for an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) was about 20 minutes.

Since both sides had more than enough nukes to completely fry the entire ecosystem and wipe out all life on earth, they accurately called this situation “Mutually Assured Destruction,” acronym appropriately “M.A.D.”..........read more.........