Why the fuck do we spend money on having the most technologically advanced, well equipped army in the world if we’re not going to do a thing about our worst geopolitical rival unilaterally launching an invasion
Might as well just keep the Coast Guard
Cook_0612 on
It’s questionable whether long range strikes could have prevented this tragedy, this is another case of the Ukrainians continuing to use large pre-war military facilities that are inevitably vulnerable to these kinds of things. Iskander-M has a range of 500km. That’s far out of range of most Ukrainian ISR.
But loosening restrictions WILL allow some reciprocity that might produce military advantage, so the US should do it and stop pussyfooting around. I’ll say this until I’m blue in the face, but every moment we allow ourselves to be blackmailed out of supporting Ukrainian victory because of some zero-cost nuclear kabuki theater from Russia where they meaningfully nod their heads at the tactical employment of nuclear weapons is a moment where we reinforce the idea that even small nukes can successfully deter and defeat American military aid, and a moment where we increase the value of those nukes themselves.
Taken in combination, we are encouraging states to race to acquiring even tiny nukes, because we are proving that, despite their lack of efficiency as actual battlefield weapons, the mere whiff of ‘nuclear’ is enough to send us cringing back.
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Why the fuck do we spend money on having the most technologically advanced, well equipped army in the world if we’re not going to do a thing about our worst geopolitical rival unilaterally launching an invasion
Might as well just keep the Coast Guard
It’s questionable whether long range strikes could have prevented this tragedy, this is another case of the Ukrainians continuing to use large pre-war military facilities that are inevitably vulnerable to these kinds of things. Iskander-M has a range of 500km. That’s far out of range of most Ukrainian ISR.
But loosening restrictions WILL allow some reciprocity that might produce military advantage, so the US should do it and stop pussyfooting around. I’ll say this until I’m blue in the face, but every moment we allow ourselves to be blackmailed out of supporting Ukrainian victory because of some zero-cost nuclear kabuki theater from Russia where they meaningfully nod their heads at the tactical employment of nuclear weapons is a moment where we reinforce the idea that even small nukes can successfully deter and defeat American military aid, and a moment where we increase the value of those nukes themselves.
Taken in combination, we are encouraging states to race to acquiring even tiny nukes, because we are proving that, despite their lack of efficiency as actual battlefield weapons, the mere whiff of ‘nuclear’ is enough to send us cringing back.