The waiting game on Russia

Ukraine's drones versus Moscow's "meat waves"

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

As a former Soviet expert on the former Soviet Union, I’m definitely in the camp that supporting Ukraine is a cheap way to decimate Russia as a superpower. It is amazing to me that “fatigue” in the West is an actual concept, given the fact that we’re suffering zero casualties and having our military-industrial complex revitalized by all this activity.

If your concern is that the West needs to wake up to the East’s growing belligerence (Russia, China, NorKo, Iran), then this dynamic is working nicely. Yes, for now, America’s defense industry is being mightily stressed (trust me, nobody’s crying in the Pentagon), but, long term … while “US arms manufacturers are not cashing in directly from the thousands of missiles, drones and other weapons being sent to Ukraine” … “they do stand to profit big-time over the long run by supplying countries eager to boost their defenses against Russia.”

Electronic testing in the workshop and production space of drone maker Warbirds of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 18 (Kasia Strek/Panos Pictures for The Washington Post)

Ukraine seems eager and willing to fight for as long as is required, and it’s hard to fault the nation on its inventiveness in response to the challenge — particularly on drones. So, we’re basically gifted a laboratory/proving ground for the future of warfare to boot. All this for about $50B to date. That is a serious bargain.