You sure are up your somewhere - think most of us would prefer not knowing where though, just sayin'
When it comes to geo-political structures, like NATO, and our position within them, then I'm not sure why you'd necessarily expect to see criticism. We've had no major war to fight in Europe for 77 years, and any border wars, such as the Balkans conflicts have had input to stop them spreading into NATO territory. The world consists of alliances in one form or another, this is our one and it is remarkably successful.
Why am I not surprised this 20+ years out-of-date view comes from someone who fancies our debate to be 3D chess?
The fall of USSR resulted in a US mired in hubris and bloody overreach when China rose to become a peer power. All the while NATO became a hammer looking for a nail, mirroring US, to whom it was just another instrument. If that wasn't the case, Russia would have been assured Ukraine would not be joining NATO, which was exactly what Merkel, Sarkozy and even Gordon Brown had wanted, but exactly opposite to what Bush Jr made NATO conclude in Bucharest in 2008. The rest, is history.
This is an unwinnable war for NATO simply because of huge imbalance in resolve. But with US seeing little at stake, they are happy with a war of attrition, perhaps unless/until a Trump Mk2 arrives, who might just abandon Europe and NATO altogether. Point is Ukraine is screwed either way, and to a lesser extent nearly everybody else, except some Gulf states, Norway and China etc. Some NATO members in Europe will see sense eventually, but the die was cast 12 months ago, and damage is being done with no end in sight.
The irony, is
Russian leaders once thought they should/could make peace with the club, but were rejected and insulted. It must be hard to find a better example of karma for hubris than this:
I don't really know what to think to be honest. The whole situation is utterly bonkers, and to me feels like Cold War 2.0 territory. There is little to suggest anything positive will come from the whole conflict.
Depending on your standpoint of course, I think there is a silver lining, in that this might reduce the likelihood of the biggest and baddest bully starting a hot war with China, a war with the potential to be far more catastrophic than Ukraine could ever be. Ukraine is not only a major distraction, it is decimating some of their materiel, showing up their less than stellar production capacity, while handing China a captive supplier of vast complementary resources on a plate. A remarkable own goal really, but as history has shown repeatedly and vividly, the big bully's talent to make a mess should never be underestimated.
