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At Bracing Views WP, a reader wrote about the importance of providing "defensive weapons" to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Here was my response:

“These weapons” and “defensive weapons”: I assume you mean Javelin and Stinger missiles together with small arms, APCs, and the like.

But when you turn to tanks, jet aircraft, and long-range artillery and missiles, these are primarily offensive in nature.

Helping Ukraine to defend itself is most certainly defensible. Yet the weapons now being discussed so feverishly in the media are both offensive and overhyped. They’re being (over)sold as potential war-winners. As “magical.” They are not. And that was my point.

What I fear is a prolonged war in which neither side can win but which the Ukrainian side suffers most grievously because the war is being fought in their country.

People like Senator Lindsey Graham talk about Ukrainians fighting to the last man with our weapons. If all of Ukraine dies with our weapons in an effort to win, are we to count that as a victory? Sadly, some Americans would nod “yes,” because we are not the ones fighting and dying.

Meanwhile, American companies profit from the sale of these weapons, hence that apt descriptor from the 1930s: “the merchants of death.”

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Bill Astore's avatar

At Podcast By George, I talk about this article and other concerns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnb4nY9sTHA

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