This thinking is how you find yourself making mistakes in international relations. It takes you out of the realist camp and puts you into the idealist camp. And it leads to foolish mistakes and bad outcomes.
"Similarly, Putin doesn’t just get to declare that he has a right to dominate Ukraine" --Oh yes, he does. He has a big army and he can do what he wants with it. You can't tell him it is illegal or immoral or unfair. The whole point of having an army is so that you can do what you want without listening to another nation's objections.
This war is a bad diplomatic outcome caused by wishful thinking, idealist ideas about national rights and cynical Western diplomacy. Ukraine was led down the garden path and encouraged to stand up to Russia, a country they cannot defeat in a war. Now that Russia has attacked them the West is leaving them twisting in the wind.
The fact that the war is happening is prima facie PROOF of diplomatic mistakes. Russia clearly, loudly and incessantly warned that they were unhappy with Ukraine and NATO's behavior on their border but they kept doing the things that Russia was warning them not to do. Russia has a powerful army and is not to be crossed lightly.
Of course Ukraine wants to be free to choose their friends and free of Russia's overbearing presence. But they are not in a position to flip Russia the bird and just do whatever they liked because they have "rights". The only right in a situation like this is the right of might. But they defied Russia and are now paying the price for it.
The magical thinking out there baffles me. What the f**k did people think was going to happen? All kinds of realistic thinkers on our own side have been warning for YEARS that this could happen if Ukrainian and NATO ignored Russia. People like Noam Chomsky, Kissinger, and our current CIA director, Burns.
Bottom line: This has got nothing to do with right or wrong. Just smart and dumb. The Russians had a powerful army on their border and a list of specific demands. They ignored them and they got invaded for it. They chose poorly.
