"What About NATO?"

The Facebook SDS alumni page is infested with all sorts of characters who were clearly never in SDS, whose Putinophilia is utterly unmoored from any sort of leftism. They are no alone in their tankhood. One post provoked me to write what follows.

I don't think anybody doubts that NATO expansion, and threats of more, are an important factor underlying the invasion. (I don't.) The difference is more political -- whether or not to mix that background analysis with a full-throated condemnation of the invasion. The contrasting point is that the invasion itself is much worse than anything NATO has done. It is grossly disproportionate and should be denounced without reservation or 'what about what the U.S. is doing' somewhere else.

After a Russian pull-back and cessation of the bombing, we can debate what the U.S. should do re: NATO. Personally I favor a U.S. exit. Leave European security to the EU. If I'm in, say, Germany, I would favor negotiated security agreements with Russia. Meanwhile, it is up to Ukraine how to pursue peace. As long as they want to fight an internal invader, I would support giving them whatever help they could use, short of anything that would launch WWIII.