I am not sure I could convince you of anything. The absolute inability to look at things from the Russian side is what strikes me the most. I have no trouble looking at it from both sides. I can see the concerns of people like the Finns, the Baltic states, and Eastern Europe maintaining worries about Russia because of the things done most especially by the USSR. But you cannot, analogously, see what could possibly concern the Russians, besides saying “nobody likes having armed forces of opposite side on your border” (sic). The USSR fell in 1991. That was the golden time to disband NATO altogether, or at least have a vastly reduced force funded exclusively by its European members of the time. That was when everybody was talking about the “peace dividend”. I remember.
But the real threat is not that the powers that be want to actually invade Russia - I agree, they don’t. What they DO want, and what some of you seem to utterly fail to see, is a permanent state of Cold War, and they have done EVERYTHING to restore Russia’s status as an enemy.
You obviously never saw or met the Russians of the 1990’s and 2000’s, who were EAGER to be accepted as part of a world community, only to see everything done to turn them back into enemies again. They watched the creep eastward of NATO, that didn’t feel threatening to you in the slightest, at a time when Russia was offering no threats anywhere. They watched as, time and again, they were denied full treatment as a part of Europe, and outside of the “G6”, “G7”, or “G(insert number here)”. They saw the oil companies in the 90’s seeking to fully exploit their resources, and export all of the profits. But that was no threat to you. I am fully aware of the Winter War of 1940, the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. But you clearly cannot see what the Russians have experienced the last 30 years, much of which I have experienced alongside them. What happened to Russians in the Ukraine gradually from 2005-present didn’t bother you in the least. I say that Russia is wrong now, but I, at least, understand where they are coming from, and cutting back on NATO and accepting Russia as part of Europe would have prevented all of this.
The wealthy group of men who became wealthy from the Cold War, or increased their wealth due to it, had an absolute stake in preventing any “peace dividend”, which was the loss of their profit and wealth. Thus they purchased so many of our politicians, and lobbied to conduct war in the name of America and “democracy” around the world. These “Forever Wars” are truly meant to last forever, and that has driven them to pit Ukraine against Russia as the next act in restoring a permanent state of Cold War. It’s truly ironic that your own words can be turned around: “That never bothered America for putting it's forces anywhere it liked whatever anyone felt upset about it. Even worse America uses its troops for naked aggression.” As long as you do not see that application of your own words to Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the rest, to say nothing of Afghanistan, there won’t be much that I could say to you. In that case, I am writing for the peanut gallery.