While I agree with some of your points Raellus, I think that ONE point is now painfully clear.
The West is weak.
I went to Wikipedia: Cold War tank formations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_tank_formations
Germany alone
1.200 M48
2.437 Leopard 1
500 Leopard 2
770 Kanonenjagdpanzer (cannon armed tank destroyer)
350 Raketenjagdpanzer (Missile armed tank destroyer)
We had ammunition for a world war.
We had a food reserve to feed the people of Germany in the event of a war.
And where did it go?
I can still hear the politicians saying after 1990: We are surrounded by friends.
What were they thinking?
Have they learned nothing?
A state has no friends, only shared interests. (Attributed to Bismarck and Charles de Gaulle)
Between states there is no friendship, just alliances. (Attributed to Charles de Gaulle)
We downgraded our armies (Germany from 500.000 West + 200.000 East to less thean 190.000 and about 225 MBT).
We believed McKinsey and Just-in-Time production and got rid of stockpiles.
The Emergency food reserve was shipped to Africa.
The last I heard that Germany has enough ammo for TWO days of fighting (World War style) and then the german manufacturers need SIX months to refill this stockpile.
Can you imagine that? Germany fights two days, then six months of cease fire, two days of fighting, ad infinitum.
What we need is to rebuild our industrial power to produce enough war material, ammo, etc. We have to go back to 1985.
We have to stop outsourcing because if we are dependent on another state (hint China, Taiwan) and they dont like us or go to war, then we are like the fish after the water went away.