@oralloy,
I'm far less conflicted on Russia.
True, it is not the same threat as was the Soviet Union, but that doesn't mean that it is not our adversary, and in general wants us to fail on all fronts and weaken.
Putin knows that the only real check on his aggression is the US. China is content for now with co-existing with a Russia focused on Europe, and Europe is neither willing nor capable of countering a seriously escalated Russian aggression.
He's not going to invade any NATO nation while Trump is president and I don't think he would do so if Obama was still president.
I'm not willing to concede non-NATO nations of the former Soviet bloc to Russia and I feel strongly that our government should not be either.
The "plight" of Russians in former Soviet bloc nations is a cynical red herring. Cynical because if any Russians are "trapped" in Georgia or Belarus it is because their grandparents and great grandparents were sent there by the Soviets to effectively colonize these countries and "Russianize" them by replacing native languages and culture with the Russian versions.
Russians living in Georgia who consider themselves Russian citizens and mot Georgians should return to the Motherland not plead to Putin to be "saved" They might only need to be "saved" if they are subversive as they were in the Ukraine.
The governments of the former Soviet states understand well enough that persecuting ethnic Russians within their borders is an invitation to Putin to invade them. Unless they are monumentally stupid, they won't do so. If ethnic Russians in Georgia behave like civil citizens of their new homes, it is highly unlikely they will be faced with anything from which they need saving.
Putin is former KGB and thinks and acts accordingly. He is a tyrant who panders to the persecution complex of the Russian people who enjoy thinking they never get any respect from the US and Europe, and need to restore the romanticized former glory of their still, essentially, backwards country.
This is not to say that we shouldn't engage with Russia and Putin.
For decades American leftists insisted the Soviet Union was a worker's paradise. When Khruschev admitted to the horrors of the Stalin regime and reduced Stalin's status and image from demi-god to psychopathic murderer, the American left went into a state of deep depression. Membership in the American Communist Party dropped through the floor. The fools had for so long refused to believe what their own country told them had happened under Stalin and was still happening, but they couldn't deny the truth when it was spoke by the Communist Premier. Afterwards there remained a great many apologists not only for communism but for Stalin.
For further decades Democrats and liberal urged engagement with the Soviets and had nothing but scorn and mockery for anti-Communist conservatives. Anyone declaring that communism was evil was considered by liberals to be a kook. Remember all the crap Reagan got when he called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire. Oh how the sophisticates on the left laughed and mocked the dim-witted conservative clod in the White House.
After the Soviet Union fell, for liberals, Russia became a basket case who despite despite maintaining a nuclear arsenal that could destroy all life on earth didn't present much of a threat to the US. Of course they criticized Bush for damaging relations and once they gained the White House we had the famously ridiculous Russian Reset, complete with a large red reset button as prop. Ultimately the policy proved a dismal failure a Russia invaded a sovereign nation under tissue thin pretext. Still when Romney stated in a debate that Russia was the greatest threat to US interests, Obama and virtually every Democrat and liberal mocked him.
Finally thought they have come around to the threat posed by Russia, and all it took was an election defeat at the hands of someone they despise.
