We are now on day 385 of Vladimir Putin’s “3-day war.” With the siege for one of Ukraine’s key cities raging, and both sides experiencing staggering losses, coupled with the fact that neither side possesses the combat power to make any significant gains, we now have a bloody, miserable stalemate. Vladimir Putin’s Air Force is taking down American Drones, executing Ukrainian Civilians, and executing surrendering Ukrainian Soldiers. It is safe to say that this war really isn’t going anywhere unless something drastic changes with many speculating Mr. Putin might soon utilize a tactical nuclear bomb on Ukraine. I am not going to speculate on that, what I will say however is that the more this drags on, the more ready we get for the real enemy. While obviously I feel awful for the country of Ukraine and I do believe in the end they will prevail, those suggesting that the US gets nothing out of shipping all this equipment to the Ukrainians are simply not seeing the bigger picture. At the end of the day, our true enemy is the Chinese, and this conflict allows us to practice executing complicated logistics missions, testing our weapons and equipment in real-time in a real conflict, and practicing complicated intelligence gathering in a true near-peer conflict in the 21st century which we have not gotten to do yet. Overall, I do believe at some point in the near future we will have to defend Taiwan from a Chinese Invasion and this is kind of a grim way to put it but, we need the practice. As the old saying goes amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics, and boy are we getting a lot of practice shipping men, equipment, and weapons across the world to an austere environment against a near-peer threat. We very well may have to do it within the next decade and we need to be ready, Slava Ukraini.
