If American leaders had an ounce of sense, Ukraine would be a lot closer to winning this war.

America started off so smart. In 2022, we told the world the Russians were going to invade. We overcame our fears about disclosing sources and methods and hoped sunlight would disinfect the Russian vermin (Putin) who was starting the war. Didn’t work. But it was a damn good try.

Once the war started, Americans just got dumber and dumber. We have become borderline crazy. (More on our mental illness later).

We didn’t believe the Ukrainians could stand up to the Russians. We were wrong. We only gave them defensive weapons that could be used in an insurgent war. Small arms and drones. Even without much of our help (arms, weapons) Ukraine held the Russians from their major cities and started pushing them back within the year.

Russians made some gains, but were thrown back and are now involved in a long bloody slog.

Even two years later, we still don’t really believe Ukraine can “win.” Americans still wrongly believe that some peace will “have to be negotiated.”

Giving up part of Ukraine “to appease” Putin will work just as well as Chamberlain’s plan to give up the Sudetenland to Hitler in 1938 (spoiler alert — it only spurred Hitler to be more aggressive).

The Ukrainians know the only way to peace is “to win”. To inflict such loses that the Russians themselves give up on this war. Putin has to be forced out of the war (and maybe office) by his own people. He will never go willingly.

Ukraine “winning” will not only keep Putin from invading other neighbors and reaching his goal to reconstitute the Soviet Union under Putin’s new fascist empire, it also makes China reconsider any thoughts of invading Taiwan.

But every step of the way, the Americans have made the same mistake. We hold back our firepower and our most effective weapons for fear Russian will “escalate” to nuclear weapons.

First, we didn’t want to give Ukraine Stinger Missiles and Javelin’s. Then tanks. Then antimissile technology. Then F-16 aircraft. Then long-range artillery.

But eventually facts on the ground made us give Ukraine all those weapons.

Putin has never used nuclear weapons in this war. He didn’t use them when his forces were getting pushed back. He didn’t use them when his top general ordered a mutiny. He didn’t use them when Ukraine invaded a part of Russia.

The nuclear “threat” is a bluff to keep the West at bay.

Worked like a charm on Elon Musk, who pulled back on Star-link from Ukraine after talking with Putin. Making billions in tech and space doesn’t mean you know shit about diplomacy and international relations. Musk keeps revealing his ignorance and tolerance of Russian fascists over and over.

But the American leadership hasn’t been much better. Repeating the same decisions and expecting different results is the definition of “crazy.” But we keep repeating the same mentally ill pattern — withhold weapons worried about escalation only to release the weapons that actually help Ukraine and weaken Putin. You would think we would just follow the Powell doctrine. Remember when we learned in Vietnam (and deployed in the first Iraq War) to strike quickly with overwhelming force? Giving our best weapons and tactics through an eyedropper only gives our enemy time to adjust.

Imagine if before the war (and shortly after it started) we had fully armed Ukraine? They could have crushed the Russian army the way they have bottled up and broken the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

Follow the money

Americans make excuses about “the money.”

Here’s the history of US defense spending since 1960 as a portion of GDP.

See the little red “speck” in spending for years 2022-24. That’s the aid to Ukraine. Source

SOURCE: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/military-spending-defense-budget

This is a small increase in spending — $175 billion over 3 years out of the $2400 Billion we have spent on defense. For 7.2 percent of our defense spending in the last 3 years, we have been able to hold down our major military foe, who has dragged us through 75 years of incredibly expensive defense spending. We have discouraged our other rival (China) from planning to invade our other ally (Taiwan). We have kept one of the richest agricultural lands on earth out of Putin’s hands and allowed Ukraine to continue to feed much of Africa and Asia.

Most of that funding for “Ukraine” actually goes straight to the American businesses (defense contractors) who build the bombs, missiles, planes, tanks… and allows the American military to rearm with more modern weapons.

We are basically saving the cost of decommissioning old weapon systems by shipping them off to Ukraine and having them kill Russians with our “trash”. Meanwhile, we pay American workers high wages to rebuild our military with newer and better weapons systems that can continue to deter Russia, China or anyone else who might threaten American hegemony.

It’s not too late to break out of this crazy cycle. There are still weapons and systems that Ukraine needs. Including permission to use long-range weapons and strike targets in Russia.

We can still give Ukraine everything it needs to win this war. We have already wasted two years and thousands of Ukrainian lives based on our false assumptions and wrong beliefs. But if we actually followed our own doctrines for fighting wars, we would arm Ukraine to the teeth and let them win this war for us without involving a single American soldier.