Yea some of these are pretty cherry picked.
I mean “the Roman Empire” in the loosest term, from the beginning of Rome’s expansion out of Italy, to the fall of Constantinople in the east, was over 1700 years.
And the Ottoman Empire was still very much alive and threatening Europe into the 18th century before they began their terminal decline.
I think it bears pointing out that both the UK and France have their own nuclear weapons and are ultimately not beholden to the US.
So encouraging Russian aggression with the implicit notion that the US wouldn’t do anything in response to an attack actually makes nuclear war more likely because even if we didn’t respond… they would still feel compelled to.