Originally Posted by IamEssential

Not that I disagree with you but a huge amount of blame for this falls on the European NATO countries. They've spent two decades now eroding their armed forces by cutting their budgets thinking in this day and age they weren't really that important or that the U.S. would pick up the slack for them. What they foolishly didn't realize is that a strong military is just another strong diplomatic arm of the government even if you never have to use them.

Trump called them out on it and before that Defense Secretary Gates who served under both Bush and Obama did the same thing back in the late 00s and early 10s. What you are seeing in the Ukraine is the result of those years of neglect.

Russia has the 11th biggest economy and is the 9th largest country by population but is arguably the 3rd most powerful nation in the world solely because of their military strength.