Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
Compare the state of readiness in NATO in 1995 to today. I'd say the Peace Dividend went a bit too far.
Nail. Head. Hit.
Trouble was - although it was clear from about 2008 when that nice Mr Putin did his first dosido with Medvedev there was going to be trouble, no-one wanted to hear it, let alone do anything about it. Aside from the minor matter of dealing with some rather unpleasant adherents of the RoP in numerous places (instead of dealing with their enablers), there's a whole societal social care thing - an essentially bottomless pit - to fund. Not to mention an entire ED&I industry.
It's the old tale of knowing something is coming is one thing, wanting to deal with it, something else entirely.
That said, the Trumpton Loon aside, they'll have to be very careful not to provoke a Art V response. Given the performance thus far of their air and ground forces against an opponent with very limited long-range reach, they could find themselves losing a significant chunk of force structure in short order.