Once Russia has been ejected from Ukraine we should be able to drastically scale back our presence in Europe. The power of Russian conventional forces was vastly overestimated.
Hilarious.
I've said the same thing numerous times. The MIC lied to us for decades, exaggerating Russia's capabilities so they could enrich themselves. China is most likely a paper tiger as well.
For additional recent proof of their likes, look at how many times they went before congress and told them the Afghan army was well-trained and ready to defend the country, only to fold within hours of our withdrawal.
All lies, all for money (and lots of it).
Not only our presence but perhaps our funding too. This whole fiasco has really exposed how weak Russia really is. Russian fighter jets have been downed with hunting shotguns. Entire Russian battalions are equipped with nothing but shovels to fight with. They ran our of ammunition including heavy munitions in less than 2 weeks. Hell Ukraine captured over half the old Russian armor without firing a shot. It is becoming more and more obvious with this debt ceiling issue that perhaps our military budget should get heavily cut to help balance things. Between Russia’s lack of equipment and Putin’s terminal cancer it sounds like our new elite LGBTQ operators could concur the whole country in a week with a fraction of our current resources.
“The power of Russian conventional forces was vastly overestimated.”
I’m coming to believe it been that way for a long time...decades even. I think its been mostly Soviet propaganda and willing participation with it by the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about.
Gotta build those weapons to stop the mighty Soviet military don’t you know!
See all the panic and consternation over the mighty Mig 25 for a perfect example of this.
Yes. American bases in Germany ought yo be shut and smaller bases set up in Poland and the Baltics