I think from Clinton's point of view, at least for a large portion of his term, there was no one to defend europe _from_. Russia was in shambles and retreating everywhere.
In hindsight we know that was wrong. However I'll fully admit that if he has assassinated Putin I would have called him out on it even though we now wish he had.
He wasn't wrong. It was in a shambles and retreating everywhere. I think the actual failure was the US doing too much to exploit that and not enough to support democracy there. Russia really needed a Marshall plan from the west to stabilize them, and not western companies going in and helping kleptocrats loot the country. By the time Putin took over, the situation was already irreparable..
I think from Clinton's point of view, at least for a large portion of his term, there was no one to defend europe _from_. Russia was in shambles and retreating everywhere.