Tiresome.

Really. All this is for saving face. 

The Pentagon and US Intelligence Committee (IC) have both advised Washington against allowing Ukraine to use American-supplied weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory, Fox News reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed official. According to analysis cited by Fox, giving the green light for Kiev to use US-supplied ATACMS missiles would have no strategic impact, while risking further escalation between Washington and Moscow. The Kremlin has already said it would consider such strikes to be a joint US-Ukrainian attack on Russia. President Vladimir Putin stated that Kiev would be unable to carry out such attacks on its own because it would rely on targeting data provided by NATO.

The issue is not just in the range of ATACMS which is 300 km, it is in the fact that more US Army personnel who operate all those ATACMS, HIMARS and other systems, including Patriot PAC3, will be killed (together with their systems) and Pentagon will have to come up with more cover up stories of helicopter crushes, bizarre gardening accidents and alien abductions of these personnel. After all, one has to explain to public where and how those US servicemen die or disappear altogether. Per escalation--as Vladimir Putin stated today--it is useless to threaten Russia, it "only emboldens us". Especially when this happens--not that it wasn't predicted long time ago. 

The UK military is unprepared to fight in a major conflict and would not be able to deter the enemy if a war breaks out now, British Defense Secretary John Healey has acknowledged. The British army, navy and air force have been “hollowed out” and “underfunded” during the 14 years of the Conservative Party’s rule, Healey said in his appearance on Politico's Power Play podcast on Thursday. When the UK Labour Party came to power in July, “we expected things to be in a poor state – but the state of the finances, the state of the forces, was far worse than we thought,” he added. "The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we have not been ready to do is to fight. Unless we are ready to fight, we are not in shape to deter,” the defense secretary stressed.

1.  The British Army is a hollow force for at least 20 years now. It is a hollow force not because of some finances, but because British economy is that of the third world (with some exceptions) and it is incapable to create and maintain a serious ground force, period. It is systemic, not some issue of financing. 

2. Deterrence in UK is a euphemism for squandering minuscule resources for some hare-brained schemes concocted by inbred cretins in London with amateurs from the Sandhurst pretending that they have means and abilities to fight a serious war. 

3. UK's "deterrence" is in Washington, not in London and 10 Downing Street better learn to live with the idea that UK is irrelevant in the world of massive economies, state-of-the-art massive armed forces and capabilities which UK can only dream about. The sun has set for Britain... simple as that. 

This all is becoming tiresome...