No. of Recommendations: 2
The only way he backs out of the war, is if the military in Ukraine is improved/increased and NATO outspends the Russians. This is our edge and the only way it stops. He will never come to the table, name calling or no name calling, he only respects strength (and that is a question mark)
This is a version of the 1930's- he must be stopped here, he wasn't stopped in the 2010s and look at where we are.
True, however:
-Putin is ego-driven; from his point of view he can't back down no matter what it costs. He's willing to spend however many lives and materiel it takes.
-Russia isn't Nazi Germany. They don't have global reach and the only real threat they pose to the west is their nuclear arsenal. Put it this way: they can't subdue their lightly-armed neighbor, so there's no Cold War universe where Russian tanks drive all the way to Paris.
Now the kicker:
-NATO war stocks are being drawn dangerously low. That benefits...China. Should they want to get froggy over Taiwan or do something else, we need the ability to respond.
China is therefore *ecstatic* to bankroll this war for as long as it takes because it's making Russia weaker by the day and causing the west to expend its dollars and munitions. Win/win for them.
So how do you really bleed Russia white?
-Get the Europeans to zero out ALL the energy they buy from Russia. Not. One. Barrel. Of. Oil. Or even so much as a liter of natural gas. They should be buying all that from us.
-The Europeans need to radically jump-start their armaments industries. Germany has maybe 1 division they could deploy, no real Navy to speak of, and no real ability to manufacture weapons at the scale needed. Ditto the rest of Europe.
There's a reason why a lot of NATO countries are suddenly talking about spending 5% of their GDPs on defense when for decades they resisted even hitting 2%: they can see what needs to be done.
What I hope Trump does: Start putting some real sanctions with teeth in them on Russia's energy sector.
