What I meant to say was that if the only way Western countries can feel "safe" is by making their neighbours less safe, then their security concerns are not valid.
But nobody feels like that in the west. Putting a strong deterrent in place in Eastern Europe isn't to make Russia scared, it's to be make Russia cautious enough not to do another invasion. That makes Eastern Europe, Western Europe AND Russia all safer. Russians might not feel safer, because their leadership will agitate their fears to serve their own expansionist goals and desire for power, but however they feel they'll actually be safer.
The early NATO expansion wasn't a direct result of Russia invading other countries. It was more a preemptive measure, and Russia reluctantly accepted it.
Russia, morally, had no say in it, and at the time politically, militarily and economically couldn't do anything about it. Now they still don't have the military or economic power to do anything, but they have managed to get a degree of political influence through the Trump twatwaffle - it remains to be seen if Western Europe has the courage to ditch the US - at least for now - and stand up to Russia on their own, and tell the US that Ukraine can be a NATO member and the US can leave if it's not going to take the alliance seriously.
My point was that the stationing of US military infrastructure in ex-Warsaw Pact countries is what Russia wants reversed.
Of course it does, because the Russian leadership still thinks those countries should be a part of a greater Russian empire. The point isn't what Russia, the US or Western Europe want, it's what do those Eastern European countries think and want - they are sovereign territories, and Russia doesn't get to dictate to them what they should do.
It's not asking those countries to leave NATO or planning to invade and take control of those countries. In other words, Russia isn't seeking to annex more territory or to recreate the Soviet Union, as people seem to be claiming.
You say that Russia isn't looking to annex more terrain, but their history demonstrates that's exactly what they do. They've invade Ukraine twice in the last decade; the first time they occupied - and continue to illegally occupy - 10% of country in the form of the Crimean peninsula, and now they're illegally occupying a further 8% (ish), having confirmed in the ceasefire for the first invasion that they had no further expansionist intent. Russia lies, constantly, regularly, almost incessantly.
Don't judge their words, judge their actions. And prepare for more gunfire.
O.
