Thank you for your reply
@Maj. Bill Martin A few thoughts and observations follow.
As others have pointed out, we're not at war with Russia. We're one of many countries supplying weapons and intelligence to the country Russia invaded illegally, but that country, not us, is doing all the fighting.
If the US Congress was still in the business of declaring war, I would give you this point. But, it's not. So, what we have is a proxy war with Russia, and the line between this and a direct war is becoming increasingly thin.
Our government from the top down has repeatedly called for a regime change in Russia, even calling for the assassination of its head of state. Our government has pledged unlimited support in time, money, more and more advanced military hardware and the opposition leader in the Senate has declared this war to be the most important issue in the United States today. We have directly countered, not on behalf of NATO, Russian threats with our own specific to nuclear weapons.
We have "advisors" on the ground in Ukraine and US troops placed around Ukraine's borders ----- ready and, apparently, willing to cross them.
Make no mistake about it, this is as much our direct war as it is Russia's. The difference is we're content, for now, to fill the body bags with Ukrainians.
1). A Russian conquest of Ukraine would greatly shorten the warning/preparatory time for a Russian invasion of our Eastern European allies. That would require us to maintain a greater and more forward-based military presence in Europe to prevent a future shooting war in which we would be involved.
I am unconvinced Russia's goal is to reenact Stalin's march through Europe, making your point that follows moot. IMO, Putin is a Tsarist and he wants two things: not to be boxed in by NATO forces (not unlike our nonnegotiable with the Soviets over Cuba) and to be a respected global player.
Subset goals include a return of Crimea to Russia after Khrushchev just tossed it to Ukraine and an independent Donbas for access to the Black Sea ports.
The same Russia we are now told is our most potent enemy is the same Russia who told Bush he was cancelling war games right after the attacks on 911 and offered assistance with intelligence gathering, ----- that warned us a year before the Boston marathon attack. Russia also fought ISIS in Syria and has given Israel near carte blanche to enter Syrian airspace to destroy Iranian weapons stored there.
Why is Russia, but not China, enemy number one?
2. Ukraine is draining Russian military strength at a pace impossible outside of an actual armed conflict. I'm not sure we've ever gotten a bigger bang for the buck from our military expenditures than what we're seeing right now in Ukraine. Whenever this war is over, Russia will be a greatly weakened conventional military power, while the strength and resolve of our European NATO allies will be significantly greater. That actually will let us commit far fewer resources to Europe moving forward than we would have had to otherwise. And all that happens without the loss of a single American soldier - just a willingness to support people who are willing to fight for their own country.
Why and when did Russia become a mortal threat that justifies our neck deep involvement? Are not the WEF and China greater threats to our freedoms?
I mean no disrespect, but nothing you've said remotely addresses the real threats we face in the 21st Century. It all reads more like passages from a Tom Clancy novel written in the 1980s.
3. Our support for Ukraine is a huge deterrent to China or anyone else thinking that we will stand by in the face of aggression. That deterrence was greatly weekend by our pathetic exit from Afghanistan, which is totally on Biden, and which may in fact have encouraged Russia to think they could get away with this invasion. Standing firm with Ukraine is the exact signal we needed to send to China to reverse the message of Afghanistan.
Nope. It looks like you missed this:
" BREAKING: Tony Blinken just said the US couldn’t be supporting Ukraine right now if they were still in Afghanistan and has no ability to support 2 allies at once" (Video)
https://mobile.twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/16078293307295088714. If we didn't stand up to Russia, both Russia and China would gain the power of the bully, and be more able to pressure or influence other countries to take economically adverse positions to the United States In the areas of trade, critical resources, etc.. It shows that we still matter on the world stage and can't be pushed around.
This has to make China laugh, they own the Biden regime and half of the US Congress. (Think 21st Century)
5. The only time Article 5 of the NATO treaty was ever invoked was on our behalf, after we were attacked on 9/11. And in response, a bunch of our NATO allies sent support to help avenge us halfway around the world into Afghanistan. Though Ukraine was not a NATO member, it's very clear that Russian aggression does pose a threat to those NATO members. So standing by Ukraine is us being a good ally to those same countries that stood by us.
Using NATO as a threat on behalf of a non-member turns NATO from a defensive alliance into an offensive one. Are you sure this is what you want?
It's also the most effective way to poke the Bear into action. Why did we do this?
6. Along the same lines, Ukraine itself, despite not being a NATO ally, also sent troops to Afghanistan. Standing by a country that stood next to us is simply the right and honorable thing to do.
Quite different from NATO provoking a war on behalf of a non-member.
7. Finally, war is a horrible thing. Europeans were killing each other for a thousand years until World War II seemingly woke most of them up, and for 75 years, Europe had avoided a large scale war, and was generally at peace . Just as a matter of basic humanity, that was a good thing. Until Putin decided that killing his fellow Europeans on a large scale would be a fun thing to do. There's a special rung in hell reserved for guys like that, and the idea that Russia should gain/profit from this is a moral obscenity. So, it basically comes down to just fighting evil. That explains why so many ordinary Europeans, who had become very pacifistic in general , support Ukraine.
This reads as simplistic talking points nestled in 1985 -- not as good enough reasons for our involvement in and escalation of this war.
Considering what we spend on everything else, and the relatively tiny cost of the expenditures to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, it's an incredible bargain.
Why are we continuing to advance our economic collapse and deplete our own military readiness for a (proxy) war with Russia? What is the compelling threat to the United States?
