I will say....the one thing thing they have done that I agree with....Straight up telling Europe....you need to spend more on defense. This is 100% accurate. Now do I like that did it in a complete asshole manner? No, not really, but whatever, the message got out.
So we have now totally pissed off Europe...We have also totally pissed off Ukraine by just going around them and talking to Russia. I mean it would be like the US going around England and France in 1940 and trying to cut a deal with Hitler. This "deal" hasnt actually happened yet, so ill reserve judgement until something actually happens.
You make some fantastic points here.
This is a really deep and fawked situation that I think plays a huge part in some of Trumps politics if you hear me out.
The US agreed to protect Ukraine when we rearmed their nuclear weapons in the 1990’s, in my opinion we are on the hook.
BUT - Ukraine trying to join NATO is a huge issue for Putin. I listened to the interview he did last year with Tucker as well as the Lex Friedman takes - essentially Putin says put someone else in power for Ukraine that is neutral or pro-Putin and the war is over. If the US faced the same with Mexico, Cuba or Canada I think we would be in the same place.
In my opinion Trump does not want to expand NATO, the Biden/Clinton Camp did/does.
If we are going to push Ukraine to join NATO - Europe needs to absorb the costs and cover the weapons. At least the majority, because China is coming.
China has been building their navy - they now have the largest in the world. They have been building their military and nuclear stockpile. Further they have been pushing against western assets for years - USAID battles some of this.
Several outlets, including XI and parts of the US Military have noted we will be at war with China in the next few years - this will include Taiwan. Japan and Korea are rapidly building their military, even Vietnam is starting to play ball with the West as they know China is coming.
Israel, in my opinion, weakened HAMAS and leveled Gaza now as they know if the west is battling China and Europe in deep with Russia, they will be fighting Iran and the Arab States with limited help.
War is expensive - smart weapons go fast. The US is repowering our battleships including the NJ now to lob cheap weapons like 5” and 16” shells again. The drone war is here, they are cheap and many of the countermeasures that we really know about like SAMS are not.
The US needs military person power as well - over the summer our carrier groups went on some of the longest non war time deployments in history - our equipment is getting strained.
We are back to rebuilding our pacific island airfields - fueling the tanks again.
War is looming - it has been.
If Ukraine wants into NATO - Europe needs to be ready to hold Russia at bay while The US, Australia, South Korea and Japan tackle China.
It will be an absolute mess.
