Appreciate the post and agree about having an open mind and especially listening. Per the perspective you introduced, it takes a tone of “we brought that on ourselves or that we’re responsible. That Russia/Putin would have just played nice if NATO hadn’t expanded. All indications point more towards Russia trying to gobble up those countries.
And I’m far from those that think we, the U.S., are squeaky clean. More like, Russia is that despicable. McCain and Biden have been warning everyone for years about Russia/Putin. They were right.