Posted on 11/19/2022 10:14:44 AM PST by SpeedyInTexas
The Ukrainian armed forces have already killed or wounded upwards of 100,000 Russian troops, half its original fighting force; there have been almost 8,000 confirmed losses of armored vehicles including thousands of tanks, thousands of APCs, artillery pieces, hundreds of fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and numerous naval vessels. US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment. If we divide out the US defense budget to the threats it faces, Russia would perhaps be of the order of $100bn-150bn in spend-to-threat. So spending just $40bn a year, erodes a threat value of $100-150bn, a two-to-three time return.
The US military might reasonably wish Russia to continue deploying military forces for Ukraine to destroy.
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In conclusion, on so many levels, continued US support for Ukraine is a no-brainer from a bang for buck perspective. Ukraine is no Vietnam or Afghanistan for the US, but it is exactly that for Russia. A Russia continually mired in a war it cannot win is a huge strategic win for the US.
Why would anyone object to that?
(Excerpt) Read more at cepa.org ...
You sound like you are stuck in the 1960s mentality where the US government told everyone Russia was a super power.
They aren't anymore. They have the economic power of Italy, or Texas. The only reason the Russians could invade Ukraine is that the Ukrainians believed that the West would protect them from Russia and the Ukrainians gave up the 3rd largest nuclear weapons inventory in the world.
You need to leave the bomb-grade reefer alone...
Inflation. We are paying for it indirectly.
Bingo!
Not to mention all the other Ukraine area natural resources.
A better idea would be to give Russia democrats to fill their gulags...
If Ukraine is so important and worth risking the destruction of civilization as we know it, why is the country not a NATO member already? If its worth defending then why not make it a full fledged member? Evidently because its not worth WWIII.
Ukraine is a den of corruption and thievery. We don’t even know where all the weapons we send to them are going. We do know that they are speculating in risky investment with some of the money and buying luxury real estate abroad. Gee, what a shock! How many more billions should we send them and for how long?
I understand the problems associated with aggression but we had opportunities to peacefully resolve the status of Ukraine and failed to find a working resolution — becauase of a failure of leadership and pressures from the MIC. Make no mistake, some well connected people are prospering from the ongoing conflict.
What concerns me is that we’re at a point where a miscalculation or mistake could plunge us into a disaster of unthinkable proportions. Is the corrupt backwater that is Ukraine really worth that?
We have become perilously close to igniting WWIII on several occasions since the end of WWII. We’ve been very lucky so far.
As has been pointed out a number of times, Trump was right about the undue burden on the US, and now NATO's actually trying to carry its own weight. Meanwhile, Putin's continuing war against Ukraine is bleeding Russia white, but remember, Russia was occupied by Putin before Ukraine was. Thanks SpeedyInTexas.
Current day Russians….Many in my area……..
Pushy,rude,demanding people.
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Compare the “folly” of WWIII where millions die in the war and millions more die due to the decades of radiation exposure.
I believe that as in the micro, so the macro. And just as it is necessary to stand up for your family and neighbors to stop an unlawful attack, so nations must also stop unlawful attacks.
I see. You’re one of the ‘We are the world’ types. It appears you have no upper limit to your Global Folly.
No, I am one of the ones that says it is better to fight on someone else’s soil and use someone else’s army / fathers / brothers.
War is coming. The central banks are going to fight over the dollar or BRICS for the dominant world currency. I would rather fight a weakened enemy than a strong one.
Russia isn’t a den of thievery and corruption? Russia’s corrupting influence does not affect the US?
Ukraine isn’t that important in the big picture. It’s a backwater politically. What’s important is the US/NATO projecting strength and not being bullied with nuclear blackmail. Everybody is watching now. Iran. The Chinese Communist Party. Saudi Arabia. Taiwan. How the US responds will in large part determine their future actions.
If they sense weakness and division, as Putin did, they will make war. If nuclear sabre rattling works they will nuke up, too. Sooner or later somebody will use nukes because they will calculate that the west is weak and won’t respond.
In Ukraine the US can set the security framework for decades and kick Russian corruption out of Europe. Or we can have dishonor now in surrendering to a genocidal mass murderer and have our war later. Hundreds of thousands are already dead due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We must chose wisely. With the Kremlin and it’s imperialist ambitions or against. There is no door number 3 here.
“have our war later”
************
This won’t be a nice, little contained war. It will be a far reaching catastrophe of unthinkable proportions that will have serious fallout (pun intended) for decades to come. Once the nukes start flying it will be very difficult to contain their use. All for a corrupt, backwater, undemocratic state that is already largely Russian in many respects. I would prefer not to see parts of the world incinerated over such a place.
We have already missed (or is it really ‘avoided’?) several opportunities to defuse this mess before it got to this point. I have no doubt that Trump would have found a way to prevent such a mess. Unfortunately we have already displayed epic weakness under Biden; look no further than the Afghanistan debacle. And now military recruiting is faltering, which is no surprise.
There are threats everywhere in this world. Some are more consequential than others. We are already burning up an enormous amount of financial resources and drawing down our military stockpiles in this mess, not to mention the worldwide economic impact of sanctions. We are in fact weakening our ability to deal with other more important challenges. That’s not very wise.
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