Remember that little squabble over a murdered arch duke —a fight between Serbia and Austria-Hungary lead to WW I and 11 Million deaths. The fight over Donbas could well be leading us to WW III and a change in the whole world order. Arrogance is the problem—The USA thinks it can beat Russia with a few marines and our F-22 planes and a few aircraft carriers. Finish off Russia—then take China! Should be a snap—”We Own the Night” Russia is so poorly lead it will be easy—they don’t have the balls to launch a nuke—so we win! We always win—America has never lost a war—we are the best that has ever been. The Romans thought the same thing.
From current events, the US (and its friends) is not going to need F-22’s and aircraft carriers. The long term is still the same long term as what won WWI and WWII. In that case it was the Royal Navy blockades of Germany and its allies.
Mahan still rules. The aircraft carriers (and subs and F22’s) can stay out of sight.
“Those far distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the dominion of the world.” - Alfred Thayer Mahan
The “west” controls the seas and international trade. Russia cannot ship the bulk of its primary export without western permission. This is being throttled.
It took a very long time for Rome to fall, its relative strengths were such that it took a few centuries of decline and dozens of disasters, while it was crushing a long string of wannabes all the while.