The US Is Running The War In Ukraine As Just Another Crooked Money Game - And It Looks Like The Ukrainians Have Figured It Out
It's the difference in "The US will support Ukraine for as long as it takes" as opposed to "The US will support Ukraine for as long as it takes to win the war." The US is a very disingenuous ally...
What gives the game away is the fact that the military aid provided has only been sufficient to prolong the war. If long-range missiles, easily available from US stocks of decommissioned surplus (which is where the US military aid has come from), and fighter-bomber aircraft, such as F-16s and A-10 Warthogs (of which a couple of squadrons worth are sitting in the Arizona desert) had been supplied to Ukraine, the war could have been won outright by the end of the first year - the missiles to interdict logistics coming over the Kerch Strait bridge, the F-16s and A-10s to establish air superiority (without which combined arms strategies are impossible) and deny the Russians time and space to regroup, the rout of the Russian troops in Kharkiv Oblast could have been easily continued, keeping the Russians on the run until the final victory had been achieved.
Instead, these arms were not supplied, and Prigozhin's forces were allowed to advance and hold territory, and Surovikin was allowed to establish his very effective fixed defensive lines - which without effective Ukrainian air superiority have been very effective in stopping Ukrainian advances. Putin, for his part, kept the incompetent Gerasimov (of the Kiev and Kharkiv debacles) in command, and killed Prigozhin and got rid of Surovikin, resulting in a land war stalemate, in which prodigious numbers of troops and materiel were expended, resulting in 18 months of battles in which areas roughly 10 miles either side of the stop line have changed hands repeatedly to no lasting effect, in that time period.
This lays the ground for another "forever war" which is very profitable to contractors - like as in Afghanistan or Vietnam or Iraq. The Ukrainians who actually want to win have figured this out, and have been constructing very effective drone munitions for use against Russian logistics, most notably its energy industry. About two weeks ago, about 15% of Russia's oil refining capacity was destroyed by these drones, which have been engineered to strike at longer and longer ranges. And then Biden told the Ukrainians to stop going after Russian refineries, and that gave the game away.
What stopped Patton from taking Eastern Europe (which was handed over to the Soviets) was that the Third Army ran out of gas - and that stopped their advance, cold. In Ukraine, no more gas for Russian tanks, BMRs, BMPs, and aircraft, puts them right out of business. From the outset, US and Western military aid has been prohibited from use outside of the borders of Ukraine, putatively for "defensive use only" - but if the enemy can stand outside of Ukraine’s borders and fire inwards, no defense can possibly work. And as long as the Russians can keep their logistics out of Ukraine, under these Rules of Engagement, there's no way possible for Ukraine to win. They won back Kharkiv Oblast by striking Russian logistics - and that's the reason the Kyiv Offensive was beaten back. No gas, no food, no water, and it's over.
So when Biden says "we support Ukraine for as long as it takes" and leaves off the last bit, "to win the war", he gives the game away - it's an exercise in corrupt money laundering and killing and maiming troops and civilians, with the intent of keeping the game going for as long as possible, without winning - the light at the end of the tunnel remains just around the corner until the plug gets pulled on the scam - and it's just another "unwinnable war" - with US taxpayers and Ukrainians (or Iraqis or Afghanis or Vietnamese) as the losers - and plutocrats on both sides as the winners.