I don’t see how that’s better. If you allow a country into NATO that means that we go to hot war with any country that invades it (in this case Russia) no matter what. Add in that we’d basically be surrounding Russia, and I think we be at a hot nuclear war.
Russia doesn't want to go to war with NATO. No one wants a nuclear war. I don't know what it is you don't see that I see. The Russians have always been conflict adverse, they barely had the courage to ship most their comrades small arms during the cold war, let alone stand up to the west. Their tactical dogma is built around the assumption that they are being invaded, which is part of the thing that's put them back on their heels in Ukraine. The only aggression they have ever offered is against weaker foes. In contrast the US is not all that conflict adverse and has often shown up to help weak "allies". NATO doctrine is pretty aggressive and the US is more aggressive than that. I don't see what advantage could ever be gotten by playing a weak hand against Russia.
Sort of a chicken/egg problem, eh what? IF: Ukraine was in NATO THEN: Russia would risk a hot war invading it. LIST OF COUNTRIES THAT BORDER RUSSIA: - Azerbaijan - Belarus - China - Estonia (NATO since 2004) - Finland (NATO since Russia invaded Ukraine) - Georgia - Kazakhstan - North Korea - Latvia (NATO since 2004) - Lithuania (NATO since 2004) - Mongolia - Norway (NATO since 1949) - Poland (NATO since 1999) - Ukraine IF: Expansion of NATO = "hot nuclear war" THEN: The world ended in a gigantic cataclysm on March 29, 2004 and again just this past April. Or maybe Russia is a paper tiger, and always has been. If you allow a country into NATO that means that we go to hot war with any country that invades it (in this case Russia) no matter what.
Add in that we’d basically be surrounding Russia,