The idea that Canada or Mexico would want Russian or Chinese bases is so counterfactual it doesn't make sense at all. The USA doesn't interfere in Mexican elections. Some of Mexico's governments are quite anti-American. None of them are crazy enough to want to become a satellite of Russia or China.
Cuba's an interesting case. Note that the USA didn't invade and subjugate Cuba. (There was the Bay of Pigs, but that wasn't the US military and isn't comparable to Russia in Ukraine.) And NATO hasn't positioned nukes in the newer NATO members.
The argument that Ukrainians can't have self-determination because, say, some parts of Cyprus don't have it, is simply ludicrous.
> The idea that Canada or Mexico would want Russian or Chinese bases is so counterfactual it doesn't make sense at all.
So this is the Ameribrain in action. I've asked this same question many times and this is one of the common responses: not to answer the question but to reject it as being so ridiculous it's not worth discussing. In doing so, such responders admit the obvious: the US would never accept it.
But this isn't just theory. We have direct historical precedent in Cuba where the US almost started World War Three over the USSR doing the exact same thing the US had already done in Turkey.
> The USA doesn't interfere in Mexican elections.
This is so laughably untrue. The US has long influenced Mexico's elections and domestic policy over things like the drug trade, foreign aid and such.
Beyond elections, Texas used to be part of Mexico.
> We have direct historical precedent in Cuba where the US almost started World War Three over the USSR doing the exact same thing the US had already done in Turkey.
Yet the US did not invade Cuba and the US choose a blockade over an invasion during the Cuba missile crisis. Even with the bay of pigs the US choose against direct military intervention and merely armed and supported Cuban rebels. This is direct contradiction of your claim.
This war has nothing to do with bases and everything to do with Putin's dream of a slavic ethno-nationalist super state. The Russia government has said as much, as had Putin in the past. Note that Ukraine doesn't even have US bases on its territory and was not even going have bases for the foreseeable future. Your argument here has no legs to stand on.
> This is so laughably untrue. The US has long influenced Mexico's elections and domestic policy over things like the drug trade, foreign aid and such.
You are moving the goal posts. Not one saying the US does not use diplomacy and soft power to attempt to influence the policies of other nations. We are talking about a war of aggression waged against a democracy by means of total war including the indiscriminate shelling of cities and population centers. Total war is very different from Russia merely supporting a coup, backing a candidate in an election, or arming rebel forces.
Saying "What about the US" is not the trump card you think it is. Attempting to wash away the blood Russia is spilling by saying the US would do that same is admitting Russia's guilt. Terrible crimes like this are not excused because someone else did them as well. Not one would accept the murder defense that sure Alice murdered Bob, but Eve also murdered Carol. If the US launched a total war against Mexico because Mexico was going to sign an economic agreement with China or offered a China a military base, I, and I suspect you as well, would be strongly against such a war.
Finally what the US does or does not do is not at issue here because Russia is not invading the US, Russia is invading Ukraine! Would Ukraine invade Belarus if Belarus had Russian military bases? No, because Belarus has Russian bases and Ukraine did not invade Belarus.
> So this is the Ameribrain in action.
Using insulting terminology like this both harms your ability to communicate your argument and harms this forum. Please don't do that here.
Cuba's an interesting case. Note that the USA didn't invade and subjugate Cuba. (There was the Bay of Pigs, but that wasn't the US military and isn't comparable to Russia in Ukraine.) And NATO hasn't positioned nukes in the newer NATO members.
The argument that Ukrainians can't have self-determination because, say, some parts of Cyprus don't have it, is simply ludicrous.