[Webstral]

I'll trust that some of the best engineers in the world with a good deal of institutional experience designing tanks know what they are doing until evidence to the contrary comes in.

The Ukraine may be a lost cause. We might have been able to do something if Ukraine had been included in NATO. The decision was made not to go this route. I'm not in a position to say whether this was the right decision. I can say that without NATO membership, Ukraine is very far forward. Even with NATO membership, Ukraine would require a major standing force with equally major stocks in place to defend against a significant Russian effort. Such a major force might elicit exactly the kind of response the West has been trying to avoid all along. Russia is looking a short distance down the road at an existential crisis. Ukraine is important to Russia in a way she cannot be important to the US. We have to ask very seriously if we are going to put the mortgage money on the table given the weak hand we have at that distance from friendly territory and the low value of the pot to us.