text: The issue initially may have been Russia joining NATO(, but it quickly dissolved into a "bash Russia" thread NOT a fair discussion of pros/cons, so turnabout is fair play. To Hamilton's key point:
  "Instead of posturing and demonizing Russia, invite Russia to join NATO, and make it a serious offer."
  
  If NATO is to continue, then this is a sane and sensible idea, and will never happen as long as the US is dead set on global domination, militarily, economically, and politically. Putin is no angel( who of the major power leaders is?), but he does have a sense of reality and he's probably a whole easier to deal with than whoever will follow him. 
  
  Since the US virtually owns NATO, what the other country's citizens think about it doesn't even come up for discussion. The threat of a nuclear war between super powers is vastly more threatening to their health than any fantasy of Russian tanks steamrolling through Europe, and most of them know it even oh so many here don't.