With all respect, I say that Democrats own the 8 years of Obama withholding lethal aid to Ukraine. This is why the war has gone the way it has. If
Ukraine had been able to build it's military 12 years ago, like it wanted to, it would be a completely different War.
You cannot build a Military Force of any quality after the start of a war, only before. Trying to build a small Army to defeat a larger enemy AFTER the War starts, is like trying to build a smaller boxer up to defeat a larger opponent AFTER the boxing match has started. The skill, muscle and endurance needed must be built YEARS in advance. Obama and the Democrats denied Ukraine this chance to build itself. That is a far bigger factor in all wars, and Democrats clearly own that mistake.
I consider myself to be a Republican slightly to the Right of Ronald Reagan. I do not support Russia in any way, shape or form. I do however, have a problem with a political party withholding aid when a Country can pay for it, then giving aid and money Willy Nilly as the former Vice President, now current President, and his corrupt son skim off millions.
Hunter Biden was on the Board of directors of Burisma, a Russian oil and gas Company in Ukraine, despite having no knowledge or training in this area. This is not conspiracy, it is fact. The Biden s were taking a cut of every taxpayer dollar sent while Joe was Vice President. There is every indication that he is still receiving his cut. "10% for the Big Guy." as Hinter Biden s business partner stated.
As it is now, no matter how little or how much aid we send, neither Russia or Ukraine can shift the balance. There will be no winner in this war. It will remain a stalemate and each side will keep the territory it has now.
Let me give you some actual history rather than your musings. Since 2014, Ukraine has participated in some form or another in every major NATO exercise in Europe. Even before that, Ukrainian officers deployed to Afghanistan to serve alongside American and NATO colleagues in the field. Using the US and British model over the last decade, they have created a modern military schooling system and NCO development program. NCOs that are directing the close combat fight every day in Ukraine. By February of '22, they had far more in common professionally with the US Army than they ever had with the Russians. Friends, colleagues, and protégés of mine have developed and stewarded that effort. All they now need is the means.
The Biden administration has been far to slow and far to cautious in what they have supplied the UA. Ukraine wants no American troops or advisors - they simply want the means to defeat Russia. Your comment about "willy nilly" aid is completely uninformed. They have received the right materiel, simply not in adequate quantity or with adequate timeliness. But with that limited amount they have fought Russia to a stand still and driven them from over half the territory initially occupied - all in less than two years. WWI lasted four, WWII went on for six, and Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq far longer. I think they are doing pretty well in comparison.
The republican neo-isolationist response is to cut them off completely. I consider myself a Reagan conservative and he would be appalled by Donald Trump, his foreign policy and those that support it. He believed in strongly defending US national interests wherever they were threatened. It is hard to find a more direct threat than a resurgent Russia again looming over Europe - yes, likely even greater than China, because our European sources of posterity are so much more vulnerable than the Pacific. I am embarrassed anyone in my party supports the strategic goals of the Russian Federation.
Finally,
@Hunt anything is exactly right. In both 1917 and 1941/42 we created the armed forces necessary to achieve victory in two world wars. In Ukraine, the correlation of forces continues to steadily shift in Ukraine's favor. Only in American could a political party be so ignorant and so weak as to seize such a defeat from the jaws of victory.
The below clip is from the area fronting the 110th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in the vicinity of Avdiivka. The Russians have been trying to achieve a victory their for six weeks. Initial attacks were with tanks and AFVs, due to catastrophic losses, those attacks are now largely unsupported infantry. These are Russian dead. The marker can't even keep up with all of them. The Russians make little effort to recover them as they try to hide the scale of their losses. All the Ukrainians are asking for is the means to continue killing them and securing their right to live as a free people.
I would suggest another bit of history to study. It doesn't repeat, but there are parallels. Had France, at far greater cost, not supported us in our fight for independence, we would both be living in a commonwealth today.
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