[Goose]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/promised-air-...57918.html

This is important because it clearly illustrates the lack of urgency under which "the west" operates regarding Ukraine. Part of that two years was unavoidable. Building the NASAMS would take some time, although there were several already being built that could have been diverted to Ukraine if that had been chosen. The "mechanical" delays in just getting the money in place plus having to negotiate a contract are simply inexcusable if one expects to "win" a war. The number of references in post hoc analysis of many wars and battles clearly shows the effects of being "slow".  I can tell you that in a situation like this back in the 1970s a "letter contract" would have been placed to get this critical item built without waiting for all the ink to dry on the sequentially dotted is and crossed ts. Everybody knew that the money would arrive and that a contract would be negotiated. Doing it sequentially cost Ukrainian lives and helped nobody. Yet that is what was done and no "outrage" was detected that made any difference.

The idea that the US can suddenly stop doing such stupid things if "we were directly involved" is very questionable. Bureaucracies are creatures of habit. They have great difficulty changing quickly. Assuming they can be changed at all.

[Goose]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/promised-air-...57918.html

This is important because it clearly illustrates the lack of urgency under which "the west" operates regarding Ukraine. Part of that two years was unavoidable. Building the NASAMS would take some time, although there were several already being built that could have been diverted to Ukraine if that had been chosen. The "mechanical" delays in just getting the money in place plus having to negotiate a contract are simply inexcusable if one expects to "win" a war. The number of references in post hoc analysis of many wars and battles clearly shows the effects of being "slow".  I can tell you that in a situation like this back in the 1970s a "letter contract" would have been placed to get this critical item built without waiting for all the ink to dry on the sequentially dotted is and crossed ts. Everybody knew that the money would arrive and that a contract would be negotiated. Doing it sequentially cost Ukrainian lives and helped nobody. Yet that is what was done and no "outrage" was detected that made any difference.

The idea that the US can suddenly stop doing such stupid things if "we were directly involved" is very questionable. Bureaucracies are creatures of habit. They have great difficulty changing quickly. Assuming they can be changed at all.