I'm saying that unchecked bad actors are going to act bad. The American people don't seem to know this, but the US hasn't been isolationist for more than a century. Also, 2001.
Write off appropriation and backfill of mothballed stock we already needed to rotate out or destroy, due to shelf life
Net new construction of weapons for immediate delivery to Ukraine. That construction happens in the US and us partner nations, and provides the US valuable use Intel as a cherry on top.
That, along with Russia not congratulating Trump are the only things giving me some hope Trump might pivot with the right push. "We made an amazing deal, Ukraine will cheaply dispose of our old weapons and punish those filthy ungrateful Russians" would be very much on brand for Trump if you insert a bunch of rambling in the middle.
Bro they do. Just today I got a message from Zelensky asking me to send him $500 for a tank ticket to Donetsk. Being a patriot I am, I obviously did my part.
Russia+NKorea surely can't go longer than US and Europe, look at the numbers in economy, population etc. Even if the US pulls out, Europe on its own would have more than enough resources to outspend Putin. It's a matter of political will, that's all. If Europe would be equally commited to Ukraine then Russia wouldn't stand a chance. So whether it's a waste of money or not now is a question of whether Europe is willing to properly support Ukraine. I guess you could make the point that it's about time we finally decide this, but the means surely are there and at our disposal.
Europe and the US really don’t want to get involved more than they are. Sure, we can toss them some of our bullets for good measure, but they don’t want boots on the ground.
Russia really could just throw more people at the problem. They’ll draft the whole country before they give up. Putin is that crazy.
Russia actually can't go on forever. There's a reason they're having to buy bottom of the barrel artillery shells from North Korea of all places. They've had gigantic reserves from the cold war to burn through, but they have been burning through it.
Russia can still produce their own stuff and have been ramping up production pretty well. The economy still works well overall. Russians now buy more Chinese goods. Russia still exports enough to get by.
They won’t collapse any time soon. However their offensive capabilities will suffer.
I mean his military. If it gets ground down badly enough, him ordering them to keep fighting would be of little consequence, because armies fight with weapons and ammunition and manpower, not just on pure will.