"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (88 Viewers)

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Another western military specialist that says Russia cannot destroy Ukraine and that Russia is losing the war. And another that says Trump is irrational.

The thing that worries me is his statement that, if Russia uses nukes the European NATO members will respond with a massive non nuke strike on Russia. That will not worry Putin one little bit. EU NATO members need to up their reply to "if you nuke Ukraine Britain and France will nuke all your personal properties". Given Putin is reputed to have surrounded all his personal properties with massive anti drone defences that is probably the only thing that will make Putin pull his head in.
Didn't Putin bulldoze his Socha palace before UFA could claim its destruction?
 
I think this is the 1st of many such deals that will cost my countries military suppliers sales, due to our current administrations policies. :(

Cutting off aid to Ukraine has meant less money going to factories here in America. Current policies are very short-sighted. Supporting Ukraine -- which is acting as a bulwark against Russian aims in Central Europe -- while at the same time infusing resources into our own infrastructure is a clear win-win.

You'd think anyone wanting to build American industrialism up again would support this injection of capital into an industry that (let's face it) when China gets feeling funky, we will need. Shells, drones, powder, reconstituting airframes.
 
I think this is the 1st of many such deals that will cost my countries military suppliers sales, due to our current administrations policies. :(

Yep. Mr 10% surcharge is revitalising all non US manufacturers of mil hardware. I suspect many of these competitors are emphasising another advantage they now have and that is there is no guarantee of parts availability for any US goods any more as those sales must also be approved by Mr 10% surcharge. Plus Mr 10% surcharge is also known as Mr another day, another policy and military and government customers require certainty.
 
You'd think anyone wanting to build American industrialism up again would support this injection of capital into an industry that (let's face it) when China gets feeling funky, we will need. Shells, drones, powder, reconstituting airframes.
Like FDR in the late 30s.

Get the factories started before the shooting starts, not let the shooting starts and then start the factories
 

Behind the scenes, the Financial Times reported that Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's lunch meeting on Friday at times devolved into a shouting match over Zelensky's pleas for Tomahawks. Prior to his appearance with Rutte, Trump rejected a Wall Street Journal report saying the U.S. had given approval for Ukraine to launch missiles deep into Russian territory.

The Ukrainian president said during a video address on Tuesday that once it became clear that Ukraine might not have access to the long-range missiles from the U.S. anytime soon, "Russia's interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically."

 
Currently, the U.S. has about 1,000 Tomahawks of all variants in their inventory. These are divided up across all branches.

As an example of past deployed numbers in a comflict, the U.S. used just over 800 Tomahawks against Iraqi targets during Desert Storm.

To be honest, I would really like to see Tomahawks raining down on Putinland, but the reality is, that there just is not enough to share with Ukraine while maintaing effective stocks to counter any potential f**kery in the Pacific.
 
Trump could use Ukrainian aid in the same way US aviation got a huge boost from British and French orders 1939-40.
Unfortunately he is doing the exact opposite. Only selling equipment to Ukraine via Europe, and then with a ten percent mark up. As a result Europe is getting the huge boost in their military investment, research and orders.
Only in the last few days we have the example of 100-150 orders for the JAS 39 Gripen fighters. The details have to be finalised but I personally believe that the only thing that might stop it is if Trump puts an export blockage on the engine. Even then that might be the trigger to quickly develop the RR engine version. For an order of that size it would be worth the investment. Think also of the impetus this would give to further sales of the Gripen.
Yet all Trump (and to be fair Biden) had to do was say yes to the request for second hand F16's when it was first made.

You can also look at the plethora of AA weapon systems, both guns and missiles, developed in Europe and supplied to Ukraine. You can also look at the drone development, production and supply done by Ukraine and Europe as well as the attack missiles supplied by Europe to Ukraine.
Edit- In addition Ukraine has of course developed very effective longer ranged attack missiles on their own. I should have included this when first posting the message.

There is I believe a significant danger that the USA is being left behind in a number of critical area's. Finally when you get left behind, your influence diminishes.

It is fair to say that there are areas where the USA is still predominant such as intelligence from most areas, in particular satellite and targeting information, so it is far from the truth to believe that the USA are unimportant, but they are less important than they used to be.
 
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