Thread by @BretDevereaux

Some of the usual suspects are using Zelensky's visit to whine about how expensive aid to Ukraine is, so it's a good opportunity for this CEPA report that notes that for just 5% of the US military budget, we've disabled 50% of Russia's military power. cepa.org/article/its-co…

From a humanitarian, human perspective the war in Ukraine is a disaster which must end as soon as possible. From that same perspective and given Russia's record of atrocities (foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/06/rus…), it must end with Russian withdrawal. 2/

But from a pure realpolitik perspective, Putin's war was a massive blunder that has strengthened the US global position, degrading Russian capabilities (which frees up resources for other threats) and strengthening our alliances (for those other threats). 3/

Giving up on Ukraine because of the relatively minimal (for these sorts of things) cost would be a tremendous strategic own-goal. Given Russia's apparent intentions for the people of Ukraine, it would be a humanitarian disaster.

We have rare bought so much, so cheaply. /end

I love the predictability of folks reading the first tweet and not the second, where I note that the war is a humanitarian disaster which should be ended but instead rush to accuse me of war-mongering.

Go back in my tweets from February, I was not excited for this to kick off.

Of course I'm some rando on the internet, but it seems equally worth noting that the Biden administration and the US state department deployed a full court press to *avoid* this war.

Accusing them of wanting it is absurd. We did not want it, but we will help Ukraine win it.

Once again, I reiterate my considered judgement as someone with a doctorate in military history: war is bad and we should do less of it.

I wish Putin had heeded that wisdom, but he hasn't and so now the world pays for his foolishness, no one more bitterly than the Russians.