I'm not white knighting or ree'ing or butthurt, I'm smug and laughing at your cope and seething while pointing out your insults are rather lacking in context of who you are talking too.
You didn't even address the point I made about people trying to play with both NATO and Russia for their economy, because you know it's right. You wanted to suck at the Bear's teat and yet still operate in the SWIFT/USD system, and now you can't play that game anymore so you lash out at anyone but Russia, who actually caused this problem. No one forced Putin to go full retard and invade.
1)16 000 Russians dead in Donbass, dude, 16 000.
You guys went postal for less than 1/3 of that, bombed and occupied two countries and wasted north of
6 trillion dollars.
Instead, Putin kept trying to get a multilateral solution for 8 years.
Go watch Oliver Stone's movie and read the UN's report if you do not believe me.
2) Russia's red lines. Ukraine in NATO would have been worse, for them, than Cuba under Castro was for you during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
3) And it was not merely weapons and an army at their doorstep.The Black Sea fleet, as well as their access to black sea shipping was put in danger.
4) Yeah, buy more expensive shale oil and gas from the Suaids, the UAE and from the USA.The Arabs sanctioned the USA in the 70s, and the USA has proven to be extremely heavy-handed with sanctions when somebody isn't their bitch.
neither the reliability, nor the price would have improved.Diversification - perhaps, but losing one provider, especially one that is right next door, is a fucking stupid idea.
As to NATO, well it is an international organization without a purpose since the Cold War ended, they kept flailing and trying to find a new purpose to feed their bureaucrats and expand their budgets, well now they got one.
Frankly, an EU security pact would have been better, then we could have all bought Rafales, Gripens and Leclerks
instead of overpriced US equipment that the NATO/US military-industrial complex racket forces us to purchase.
Yes, the US may face issues as well, and we already are. However we also weren't so stupid as to put our critical supplies in the hands of Russia and make ourselves dependent on Russia for a big part of our economy. You Euro's had the option to switch suppliers long ago, to get out from under Moscow's thumb, and you didn't; that's on you all and no one else.
Yeah, you are just dependant on the Saudis, and you went to Venezuela and Iran to beg for oil.
Actually, I will repeat that, and bold it:
and you went to Venezuela and Iran to beg for oil.
This will be a crap time for most for many of us, but it'll be worse for those who tried to play both sides and now are facing a reality where you cannot double dip with DC and Moscow.
Trade with everyone, alliances with no one, was something one of your presidents said, correct?
Why don't you let people practice what you preached when you were actually great and realizing potential?
Better yet, why don't you tend to your own patch of land and stop exporting color revolutions, wars, worthless IOUs and GFCs around the globe?
And stop being the planet's bloated welfare queen, while you are at it.
Why not read the writings of the noted leftist Kremlin supporters Peter Schiff and Ray Dalio on the subject of use and abuse of reserve currency and what will happen if the USA loses its reserve status?
And stop enabling and praising garbage like Saddam Hussein, the Saudi royal family, Batista, and bin Laden while you are at it.
Oh, and while we are blaming people for bad decisions, it is your greed and money printing made China, you pushed it into the WTO, despite knowing what they did and still do.
You enabled Pakistan to terrorize people in India.
You "made" the Taliban, although you were the midwife, not the parents.