Subject: Re: war with Denmark or Panama??
Versus the one that understands that the Chinese are intently monitoring how the West responds to a military effort to seize territory as a way of assessing their position in Taiwan and other areas in the Asian theater.

Right, they're totally the same scenario with totally the same economic consequences to world trade if something were to hit the fan.

See? People can disagree on tactics without denying that America has interests that need protecting.

Sure. Let's also be clear on a few things, lest they be conflated into generalities: Getting the Ukrainians to off most of Putin's standing army (so that we don't have to) is a good thing. Capturing the Russians' latest toys and getting to tear them apart is a good thing. Getting to observe how a lot of Chinese equipment fares in wartime conditions is a good thing. And so is being able to watch the drone era of warfare unfold without actually participating in it. All pluses for us.

Those pluses only run so far. Are you willing to send the Air Force's entire allotment of A-10s and F-16s over there? How about emptying the Army's supply of M1 tanks? The answer is of course "No", and that's where the crux of the debate is - how willing are you to degrade America's combat readiness when the Germans/French could be supplying more?

But that doesn't mean that the person making the bad decision intended the decision to be bad. That people who advocate national security policies that you disagree with must actually just not care about the U.S. national security interest, rather than simply having different ideas about how to advance our national security than you do.

Does this standard apply to Trump?

Nearly every country in Europe is higher than the target 2% defense expenditure.

Sure, after merely being a member of the alliance for the past 70 years. Are defense capabilities built up overnight?

The U.S. isn't out there defending Europe on our own, Dope.

Those 39 fighter jets the Germans have will go really far if they're needed, won't they? Ditto their 0 submarines.

Have you looked at who is doing 100% of the fighting in the Red Sea?