Then your next paragraph, "Just a reminder here: NATO is expressly a defensive alliance, not an expansionist one. If Ukraine joined NATO..."

You can even make a consitent argument over two paragraphs. NATO was created (ostensibly) to counter the threat of the USSR. The USSR ceased to exist 31 years ago, but NATO has doubled in size since then.

NATO is now talking about expanding to Asia to support Taiwan. Will the "North Atlantic" part of NATO change to "North Atlantic and South China Sea?"

FFS the argument that NATO is purely defensive died when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 without a UN mandate, and at this point is intellectually insulting.

None of this says that Russia was "right" to invade Ukraine, but can we stop with the pretense that Vlad is just the next incarnation of Hitler, a mad man bent on killing his neighbors? After hearing the exact same arguments regarding our erstwhile allies in Iraq, Libya and Syria the story would be funny if it were not so serious.