After WWII, it's hard to imagine the USSR could motivate the public and endure another war. I wonder if the US feared socialist movements and maintained a military presence in Europe to deter them.

Funny, after the USSR fell, NATO intervened in Yugoslavia, and decided the capitalist Russian government was as dangerous as socialism and Stalin. Did Europeans want the US-NATO to stay? It seems a bit silly the EU joined political and economic forces, yet wanted the US to hang around. Maybe the US refused to leave. Ha. I'd put money on that.

What baffles me is NATO's role is to protect, yet refused to negotiate with Putin to evade war. Ukraine can ask the US-NATO or whomever for protection, but if those states cared to protect Ukraine they should have compromised with Russia and threatened military action.

The media claims that Putin doesn't negotiate, but in this case, the US blatantly stated the US doesn't negotiate. So, I wonder if peace was ever the objective. Stopping a war from starting is the best way to protect people, and now, we're prolonging the misery by fueling the fire with tons of weapons. We prefer to shoot first and negotiate after a determined amount of deaths forces us. Ugh.