Quote:
Originally Posted by Leondros
Or maybe, just maybe, NATO countries do not have the appetite for sending their troops to war. Does the US want to send their troops on the ground of another grueling war after just pulling out of the Middle East? It would be political suicide - regardless if you believe Putin would, or even could (I doubt his generals would let him get to that point) press the button. No one has the appetite in the West for another war.
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Yeah, the US doesn't even care enough about the war to send tanks, planes, or levels of ammo that would compromise their own stockpiles in any way. I'm not sure why anyone's talking about US troops. It's not Russia's nuclear arsenal that's keeping the US out of Ukraine; it's that the US doesn't have a whole lot of interest in Ukraine other than how it affects American interests, and they can achieve those goals by simply supplying arms and providing some intelligence.
If you look past the idealistic platitudes, the US position really comes down to 2 things:
1) Maintaining their (and NATO's) influence as the predominant military power in Eastern Europe. They do this both by containing Russian expansion and by supplying Western/American-made arms. The amount of weapons that are being bought as a result of this conflict and NATO support is staggering, and most of the revenue from that ends up back in the American economy. And once a nation relies on your for arms supplies, you can exercise a degree of control over them.
2) Bleeding Russia's military (and economy to some extent) to help neuter them as a legitimate threat for potentially decades to come. The amount of equipment Russia is losing will never be replaced which will both reduce them as a threat and limit their ability to fund and arm other countries around the world, again creating more business for US arms suppliers.
The US is effectively trying to achieve those goals with the minimum of cost (both political and financial) and with the lowest chance of escalation. So far at least, I'd say they're doing a masterful job at achieving their objectives.