I care about American policy.  Focus on the personal stuff shifts energy away from formulating optimal policy.  The more energy we put into petty personal fretting, the more we condemn ourselves to sub-optimal forward direction as a nation.  Regarding NATO, it could be construed as a land grab by the west to expand to include former soviet countries.  Yes, it could.  Does it matter what the people there want?  If yes, then we must sanction Russian action in Crimea and Ukraine where the local people involved wanted association with Russia.  Your conjecture that Russia would retake Poland and other "iron curtain" countries is just that a conjecture.  It would be more plausible if the potentially affected countries had large resources and wealth, but they do not.  The Russians are not insane.  You have just been indoctrinated, by the militarists desperate to maintain high military levels, to perceive Russians as a threat.