Andrew -

You served, but how long did you serve? Real perspective requires time and experience. The rest of this is meant as constructive criticism (something I've learned to value even when I didn't like hearing it). I hope you take it as such.

You may have a point about Putin wanting to "bleed the Ukrainians white", to borrow from German General Falkenhayn prediction when planning the attack on Verdun. That's a good observation, and (speaking as a writer now) that's where your article should have remained focused. Instead - and as others have mentioned - it's like you threw everything including the kitchen sink into your article. What's more, you seem to have allowed your personal opinions/likes/dislikes color your perception of the US and our military.

I strongly suspect you didn't serve more than one hitch, and so probably had little if any chance to have more than a worm's-eye view of the whats, whys, and wherefores of life in the military. But that's the problem with ignorance - one often does not know just how much one doesn't know.

Lastly, there's *nothing* wrong with ignorance. The problems come when one is resentful of (or flatly refuses) correction.