Bear in mind during the Cold War the US almost exchanged nuclear missiles rather than let Russia have an installation in our hemisphere, let alone at our border. I’m sure they’d prefer a buffer. It’s not about fearing an imminent attack, it’s about the capacity to attack in the future. Distance is response time.
But that’s NOT really it. He clearly has designs on claiming territory. If they rolled through Ukraine in a few days as they had planned, they damned sure wouldn’t have stopped there.
Both of these things can be true.
Bear in mind during the Cold War the US almost exchanged nuclear missiles rather than let Russia have an installation in our hemisphere, let alone at our border. I’m sure they’d prefer a buffer. It’s not about fearing an imminent attack, it’s about the capacity to attack in the future. Distance is response time.
But that’s NOT really it. He clearly has designs on claiming territory. If they rolled through Ukraine in a few days as they had planned, they damned sure wouldn’t have stopped there.