John Mearsheimer on why the West is principally responsible for the Ukrainian crisis
ECONOMIST.COM -- THE ECONOMIST -- [ISMAILI DIGEST ED: While we normally do not post on political matters, we are posting on the situation in Ukraine because it is an invaluable case study about Big Tech and Western media. ~~ Hazar Imam, 1996: "Even as the press has become more international, it has often left a trail of misunderstanding in its wake."] ARTICLE: The mainstream view in the West is that Vladimir Putin is an irrational, out-of-touch aggressor bent on creating a greater Russia. Thus, he alone bears full responsibility for the Ukraine crisis. But that story is wrong. The West, and especially America, is principally responsible for the crisis. The trouble over Ukraine started at NATO's Bucharest summit in April 2008, when the Bush administration pushed the alliance to announce that Ukraine and Georgia "will become members". The prevailing mantra in the West, portrays NATO expansion as irrelevant to the Ukraine crisis. The issue at hand is not what Western leaders say NATO's purpose or intentions are; it is how Moscow sees NATO's actions. None of this should be controversial. Prominent American foreign-policy experts have warned against NATO expansion for decades. America's Secretary of Defence at the time of the Bucharest summit ...
