What if Joe Biden threw a party and no one came? Such is the case in Ukraine, where slogging Russian progress is matched by Biden’s belief that global hegemony is at stake and that he is fighting his war at little cost. Here is the war at about four months in, as Biden announces a new aid package of $1.2 billion atop some $40 billion in previous “lend-lease” aid.
Given that core NATO members raise a quiet glass every night to the fact they are not militarily involved in the fight for the Donbas and Crimea (the latter invoking 19th-century memories of the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade, as the area was last seriously contested between East and West when the British fought the Russians there) Joe Biden and the Washington establishment stand alone in thinking Biden leads the West in some sort of epic struggle. This war is being fought with arms supplies and sanctions, both of which are failing, leaving Biden exposed, to awake one day soon to find himself the Emperor of Donbas without any clothes. […]
The biggest problem with trying to win simply via outspending the other guy is artillery and anti-tank missiles do not hold ground, infantry does. A brave Ukrainian taking on a T-72 may stop the tank (until another comes along) but he cannot retake a village or hold ground against a combined-arms offensive. In short, the flow of U.S. defensive-style weapons has done its job and exactly what it was intended to do: blunt an offensive. The problem is, there seems to be little plan for what comes next. In areas like Donbas where Russia enjoys local support, or areas like around Mariupol where it is willing to employ a scorched-earth policy, the Ukrainians are predictably losing and will continue to do so. Läs artikel