You’re looking at Ukraine and Taiwan from a U.S. perspective, while I’m looking at it from a Chinese one. How the west responds to Russian aggression that comprises Ukrainian sovereignty is absolutely comparable to how far China thinks it can push to compromise Taiwan’s. The Chinese did not voice support for Putin’s actions just for fun.

While I agree to some extent on what you’re saying about NATO expansion, you’re conveniently leaving out the unprovoked acts of Russian aggression over the past decades which I cited in the article. I haven’t seen the U.S. encroaching on Canada or invading Mexico during that same period.

Perhaps instead of finding excuses for autocracy, we should be looking to promote people’s freedom to self govern themselves (if they want, as Ukrainians do by most accounts).

I know full well what the threat of force implicates. Would you have argued the same in 1939 when the world basically gave Germany a pass for invading Poland? I’m not aware of any obligations the the Allies had then either. But had the resistance and deterrence been stronger from the start, perhaps history would have turned out differently.