That’s all these threads normally are - back and forth. Difficult to have any real discussion.
People claiming one side or the other has had 100% success in this war without a hitch. Same people claiming for over a year the war was just weeks or days away from being over with an overwhelming victory or retreat - and you are a propagandist if you point out the reality this did not occur. You’re a “neocon Biden supporter” if you aren’t inspired by a speech that declares the West was evil from its inception and “founded” the slave trade, etc.
Russia & China just might be dragging their feet, to deplete the U.S. & N.A.T.O. of their weapons & ammo stockpiles, and downgrade or destroy the economies of the U.S. & Western European nations. Patiently awaiting for the optimum opportunity to take us out, by using an EMP to take out our eyes & ears, making us extremely vulnerable. Perhaps that's what they were testing with their balloon intrusions. To see exactly how we would respond.
Capture our nuclear weapons, and cobble up the world.
Regardless, our involvement in this conflict will not end well, I suspect. Because, like the economy, those in control in this nation are either completely inept, or they are traitors.
I don't know, all conjecture on my part except for our leadership that is, and apparently other experts don't know either. Because many of them are dumbfounded at the pace Russia has been proceeding. Are they wrong about Russia's capabilities? Perhaps, it wouldn't be the first time our intelligence agencies got it wrong, sadly enough.
Whatever it is, I still doubt Ukraine will be victorious in the end. No matter how you look at it, this was a misadventure that we should not have allowed to progress to the initial invasion to begin with.