My criticisms are that our policies and the types of of support we provided Ukraine provoked Russia into action.
Do you believe that the only actor with any agency is the US? I tend to think both Russia and Ukraine have the capacity for more than a merely reflexive response to US action, but maybe you just see them as mindless NPCs.
Ukraine cozying up to non-Russian-aligned nations for defense likely contributed to Russia's decision to invade prior to that coming to pass, but absent a Ukrainian government they could directly puppet, I believe Russia likely would have invaded anyway. Russia's decision to invade was not as overly simplistic as you make it out to be. They have (and have expressed) motivations well beyond "self-defense against encirclement!" And that leaves out the unstated but glaringly obvious economic motivations.
This article is a more recent breakdown of his assertions with which I mostly tend to agree.
https://www.unz.com/article/who-caused-the-ukraine-war/
Of all the perspective in the world, that is certainly one of them.
Again, US and NATO actions absolutely featured into Russian decision making, just as Britain making nice with Poland influenced Hitler's decision to invade Poland. However, if Poland had rebuffed Britain, I don't think for a second that Hitler and Stalin would have shrugged and looked elsewhere to invade. Nor do I think that Ukraine could have avoided this invasion short of becoming a vassal state of Russia.
Instead of recognizing western actions as a component of the decision, you and Mearsheimer simplistically assume it is the only factor, completely underselling Russia's internal dynamics, its neo-Imperial goals, and its critical need to control competing European oil and gas reserves - the core economic force which drives Russia.
I'd note that taken together, the Donbass and Crimea account for something like 80% of Ukraine's natural gas reserves, 90% of its natural gas production, and 63% of Ukraine's coal reserves, plus a chunk of their oil. Isn't it an amazing coincidence that those are also the specific regions that have Russian backed separatist movements?
Among other weaknesses, your framing of the issue requires the acceptance of the following absurd assumptions:
1. Russia has a right to control its neighbors.
2. Russia is a mindless automaton, responding only to NATO stimuli.
3. Ukraine only desires to turn westward because of US influence as opposed to having legitimate self-interest that would be served in not being a Russian puppet.
My complaint is not that you criticize US foreign policy, it is that you
only criticize US foreign policy. Russia's lies, atrocities, manipulations, and choices are all ignored, or worse blamed on the US. You lay this war at the feet of the US while washing clean the feet of the actual invader.
