Budgeting

People born after September 11th, 2001 probably don’t remember the red specter of Russia looming as the default geopolitical foe to the US. Every movie, book, and other media regularly showed Russia as the leading cause of American military conflict. This naturally changed into vague, middle-eastern threats after 9/11, but Russia has historically been the cat to our mouse for a long time.

I think it caught just about everyone (Putin included) by surprise when Russia categorically clusterfucked their way into Ukraine and showed the entire world how outdated and absolutely shit their entire military apparatus is. For whatever percentage of their GDP they spend on defense, it seems to be going into more pockets than training. The entire world has watched as Russian tanks have been popping their tops like treaded Pringles around every corner of Ukraine’s streets, while Russian generals eat bullets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

NATO estimates that up to 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded, or captured since the invasion began about a month ago.

Of course, this entire situation is no laughing matter, with war crimes and countless other atrocities being committed against the people of Ukraine by Putin’s impotent forces. I think at this point, if I asked for 40 Lance Corporal volunteers to fight, I’d get them without hesitation…

…Even without the alcohol.