Phillips P. OBrien
@PhillipsPOBrien
Professor of Strategic Studies, @univofstandrews; Author of War and Power (Summer 2025)
1.7K Following 217.4K Followers
Between 2016 and today, the US has spent almost $9 trillion on defense. It then ran dangerously low in many advanced munitions fighting a country with no air force and navy--after about two months of combat operations.
This is an extraordinary scandal.
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If you cannot accept that what Trump has done over the last year and a half is starve Ukraine of air defense, and put off any new aid for as long as possible, so Putin can terrorize Ukraine from the air for as long as possible--you cannot accept reality.
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New @wapo story today, the Trump family has secured about $3.2 billion in Pentagon contracts for firms which they are involved in. This is the tip of the iceberg in the largest corruption saga in US history.
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It is amazing how little the press is willing to dissect US decline under Trump. The US got no help with Iran, was scolded on Taiwan, says it got a small Boeing deal (China has not confirmed) and Trump appeased on Chinese students, microchips, etc. Xi even insulted US power.
And yet it is being reported as a modest successful event. It was a strategic failure by the US and marks a notable moment in US decline.
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