So. . .Lame Duck President Biden has finally decided to allow the Ukrainians to strike back at their Russian and North Korean invaders with US supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) - in the Kursk region. Other regions of Russia remain sacrosanct, so it can continue to launch glide bombs at Ukrainian day-care centres with complete impunity.
This has outraged the usual suspects. The Kremlin is Krying foul, as it always does when its victims fight back. Elon Muskovite, Marjorie Traitor Green, and the rest of Putin's puppets in America are all wetting their beds, as they always do when their masters are inconvenienced. And the lily-livered left are bitching about the military industrial complex, as they always do when their prayer beads fail to stop dictators. All claim this (as opposed to Russia's invasion in the first place) will lead to World War Three. All are being disingenuous: Russia, because disingenuousness in bred into it's DNA, the Right because they want Russia to win, and the Left because they always hate to see Western weapons used, even when they intercept glide bombs headed for maternity wards. Even ostensibly sympathetic commentators, such as Owen Jones and Cenk Uygur, don't want to see Ukraine defend itself too vigorously.
Thing is, Russia's been threatening WWIII from the very beginning. It has threatened to unleash the nukes every time so much as a bottle of foreign made athlete's foot powder has landed in Ukraine, and has opted not to do so Every Single time, possibly because it actually doesn't want to be turned into soup.
Nor is it in any position to send in its tanks or jets, as all of them are needed in Ukraine at the moment. Fact is, Russian conventional forces wouldn't last a minute against NATO, and Moscow knows it. Yet, NATO continuously falls for its bluffs, even after unwittingly calling them. And considering the Ukrainians are already in it up the neck, the threat of "escalation" or "retaliation" seems laughable indeed.
I say "hurrah!" ATACM strikes might hurt the invaders a bit more. They might enable Ukraine to keep some thimble-full of Russian land to bargain with when Trump forces them to surrender. They might intercept a handful of glide-bombs. Will they change the course of the war? This utterly amateur arm-chair observer thinks not.
At this stage in the game, it all strikes me as a bit like lending someone a fire-extinguisher after their house has burnt down. The time when such weapons could have made a major impact is long past. Some months ago for instance, Ukraine came this close to winning a major victory south of the Seym river, but just couldn't pull it off. The Russians reinforced and resupplied too quickly. ATACMS, disrupting Russian logistics, might have made a difference. They might not have, but we'll never know now: the moment has passed.
A great many moments have passed. The West has a gift for providing too little too late. ATACMS didn't even arrive in Ukraine until long after Russia had consolidated its positions. HIMARS, Abrams tanks, and F-16 jets all arrived only after much hand-wringing and delay, during which time, more and more of Ukraine was chewed off by the bear.
Analogies abound.
Give 'em the helmet after the head injury.
Give 'em the coat after the hypothermia.
Plug up the boat after it sinks.
Lock the door after the thief gets in.
There comes a point when late becomes so late, it may as well be never. We're fast approaching that point now. The longer it takes for Western weapons to arrive, the fewer Ukrainians will there will be to use them, and the less there will be of Ukraine to protect.
It didn't have to be this way.