I used to care that someone might nuke one of our cities.

Screw Russia.

They want Poland and the rest of E. Europe naked and defenseless. Putin characterized the breakup of the USSR as "the greatest geopolitical disaster in history." This is cleary a man that resents the "former" portion of fomer Soviet bloc.

All of this rationalization about MAD is simply cover to keep even DEFENSIVE NATO deployments out of Poland. Russia doesn't feel threatened. They feel frustrated that they can no longer bully the neighbors with impunity.

Here we are some 70 years after WWII and we still have tens of thousands of troops overseas

I'm not convinced that the United States needs to have all those deployments in Europe. If we are not convinced that the Poles, Germans (Greeks & Turks) are all fine upstanding NATO allies and can pull their own weight, maybe we should be doing something else. (e.g energy self sufficiency)

Further off topic: during the collapse of the USSR, so many pensioners starved, so many of the working age died from alcohol & drugs. I wonder if we will go through a collapse and survive any better.