You Asked For It
For all of you calling for, begging for, or even demanding US support to Ukraine, you are getting what you asked for.
Supporting Ukraine isn’t the Lend Lease Act. This isn’t just providing equipment that any farmer can use. The F-16s people want given are not stick and rudder propeller planes you can teach someone to fly in a couple of weeks. The M-1 tanks aren’t Shermans with diesel engines being produced by the hundreds in factories in the US. These are computerized killing platforms. The surface to air missiles aren’t the Stingers we trained the Afghans on in the 1980s. The price tag on these are in the billions. With a capital “B”.
All this equipment everyone continues to suggest we “just give to them” require Americans to support. They require Americans to train the Ukrainians to use. They require American companies to provide fuel and parts and munitions to sustain. That’s American participation.
You know what else is American participation? Flying drones to support intelligence gathering and targeting data to the Ukrainians. Yes, that’s what that Reaper drone that is now in pieces in the Black Sea was doing. You know, the one the US will never recover but the Russians might. The one that reportedly had fuel dumped on it by a Russian fighter jet which caused it to crash.
By the way, that’s an outright lie.
It is bad enough the Russians will possibly recover pieces of that drone that might give them some insight into capabilities and technology. When we provide F-16s like you ask, the Ukrainians will lose some of those too. And the M-1s. The Russians will have pieces and parts of our equipment. If the war lasts long enough for us to deliver on that promise, it’s gonna happen. Count on it.
Regardless, while providing Ukraine with equipment (even with Americans supporting it) is indirect support, what that MQ-9 Reaper was doing is direct support. Actively involved. Undeniably participating. You can’t hide that.
We are now involved. Actively. Publicly.
So, I hope all of you WarHawks are happy. I hope everyone who made those demands are satisfied. Especially those of you who never served or never had a son or daughter in uniform. I hope you’re happy. I can tell you who isn’t happy; a great number of multi-tour veterans who spent the last 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those of us who actually put our asses on the line.
I won’t speak for them. You ask them if we should get directly involved in Ukraine. I am pretty sure what their answer will be.
It seemed simple to all of you who don’t know how this stuff works. It’s not. But, you got what you asked for. And now we are involved. Actively. Publicly. Now, the world is at risk of escalation because you wanted us to help.
Just remember…You asked for it.