Is Ukraine the Vietnam Domino Theory of the 21st century?

As one who lived thru the Vietnam War, 1959-1975, I still shudder at the waste of life and land in Vietnam for 16 years.

Why did the US spend $168 billion (1 trillion today) to get a couple of million innocents killed in Vietnam, including over 58,000 US troops? The Domino Theory.

No, not the game, tho the US does treat the world like one big war game. It refers to the post WWII US theory that no country could choose or simply become communist because then every other country in the region will fall into communism like cascading dominos, dooming the US. There was and is no truth to that cockamamie theory whatsoever. But it allowed the US war party to initiate regime change or outright invasion all over the world to maintain US global exceptionalism and fuel our now nearly trillion dollar military budget.

With Vietnam in the loss column and the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the Domino Theory went poof like a Chinese weather balloon over the Carolinas.

But Uncle Sam was not happy about losing his Domino Theory to dictate nations' choice of government. He spent 8 years beginning in 2014, with his support of a coup to oust pro-Russian Ukrainian President Yanukovych, to establish a new Domino Theory, this time in Europe. Can't have a pro-Russian guy running Ukraine because then other European countries might align with Russia to obtain cheap energy and other US made resources from nearby Russia. Doesn't matter US Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is 4 times higher. America needs the revenue.

US provocations led to the illegal Russian invasion with specifically limited aims: First: No NATO expansion in Ukraine with nukes right up to Russia's border. Second: independence for Russian leaning Ukrainians in Ukraine Donbas being slaughtered by their government after the US backed coup. 10,000 to 15,000 so far.

Once started, the US should have supported negotiations that could have ended it within the first 2 months. But that would have allowed Russia back into the European political economy, something unacceptable to US dominance in Europe. Enter the 21st century version of the Domino Theory, this one directed at Russia, the puny remnant of the old Soviet Union. The false US narrative proclaimed unless we totally defeat Russia in the Donbas, they'll gobble up the rest of Ukraine and then start nibbling at the rest of Europe.

The entire US mainstream media has wolfed down this new Domino Theory like a Domino's pizza. But those of us peaceniks who pushed back against last century's Domino Theory, find ourselves, 45 years on, having to push back again. Those who don't remember the Vietnam War Domino Theory should join us peace movement vets to form mass resistance to the Ukraine Domino Theory. Help us encourage our government to consign this century's Domino Theory to the dustbin of failed foreign policy war games.