You can’t let countries with active conflicts enter NATO, you might as well declare war with Russia at that point. Russia was weaker back then so they may have resorted to nukes sooner.

NATO shouldn’t have expanded eastward, or the US should have left NATO. The West has been such utter fools in our negotiations with the world, being too powerful for too long has eroded diplomatic skill and left us ignoring the legitimate grievances of our adversaries and delivering one sided ultimatums.