I'd heard the US was spending about 5% of its military budget beating Russia through Ukraine in partnership with the EU countries. The military budget in the US was always predicated upon the premise of fighting the top two opponents simultaneously. Even if the US spends 10%, China needs to take note of that. China stated in the last week that "war with the US would be devastating". They've gotten the message, and the longer the West holds out against Russia, the more the message sinks in that a war between the two remaining superpowers would be a lose-lose situation.

By spending the money now, we prevent a major war later, and can get back to hosting proxy wars. /s

By the way, the next superpower has already started making itself known - India. They have developed their own aircraft carrier. The US and the West should do what they can to align interests with India. This will create a wall around China and further prevent imperialist daydreaming.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Very much this. 5% could be thought as a preventative investment in the future. Kind of like taking care of one's teeth instead of waiting until they rot and then fixing the problem.

Letting russia and china go through with colonialism would lead to a situation that is much more expensive to deal with.