NATO Expansion

I keep hearing the illogical and apologist argument that NATO expansion has caused the war in Ukraine.

• NATO does not expand of its own free will - countries apply to join NATO; they can't be forced. It therefore enlarges under external pressures - it doesn't proactively expand.
• Countries apply to join NATO because they perceive a threat. That is a natural and logical thing to do in the face of a threat.
• If Russia was not perceived as a threat to a nation, it would have no need to join NATO and thus enlarge it.
• Russia, with its present regime, is a threat to any democratic country on its borders.

If I have a nice house, I pay taxes to employ a police force to go after the thieves if they target my house. If the thieves then complain that the police are a threat to them and make them more likely to target my house, I will rightly ignore such blackmail.

That's not to say NATO is perfect, because it isn't, but if a free and democratic country wants to join it, you need to examine the reason behind the request.

If Putin is removed and replaced by yet another autocratic and totalitarian face, it will still be a regional threat. Only if it chooses to join the freely democratic world will any threat be neutralised. Totalitarian states are a threat to free will, free speech, freedom of thought and free self-determination.