Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

SecondWar said:

Qwark said:

The USA wants to play a different role on the world stage. That is their rightful choice. It's a shame other countries can't seem to find that out. USA is no longer interested in a democratic world, it sees foreign affairs solely as a means for short term profits. It's about time the remaining free world sees that and acts accordingly, instead of hoping the US goes back to its old ways.

In my eyes Europe is much more of a spineless (incompetent) coward than USA. They basically accepted Russia to invade Ukraine. They should have sent their best day one. Not there third best equipment day one thousand, after everything from the 50/70 was donated.

The majority of Americans voted for him and Americans aren't suddenly going to think, we want to go back to Biden/Obama era. Nor should the world expect that and even if the USA goes back to those policies we now know that those are very temporarily.

Thing is there’s a practicality to that that is often overlooked.

lets say in your stockpile you have three years of supplies for what Ukraine needs. The best is the most recently produce, within the last 5 years. Then the ok stuff, produce between 5 and 20 years ago. The bad which was produced 20+ years ago and is about to expire.

If you send the best first then the ok stuff, when you come back in 2 year the bad stuff can no longer be used so you wasted a years worth of equipment. Hence whilst it may not sound great but it makes sense to use the bad stuff first as it helps you keep going for longer,.

Adding to this, most European countries didn't have any significant stocks of modern equipment, only of those that that has been sent to reserves and isn't in active duty anymore. Sending their newest stuff would have meant that their own armies would have been without equipment. Hence why all European countries are on a buying spree, not just to replace what have been sent, but to actually build some strategic reserve in terms of hardware.

And since all the Warsaw Pact equipment has been used up by now (apart of some vehicles in Polish use), If Russia would ever try that stunt again (and it would be many years before they'd be in a position to do so again with all their lost men and materiel), Europe would then be ready to sent more substantial amounts of equipment, and it would for the most part be NATO standard, so it would be much easier for Ukraine to integrate all the equipment than the mashups that they had early in the war.