Chinese leaders believe in Marxist Leninism. They believe that the world will inevitably become Marxist and their Leninist party can speed up this great end. They believe that China deserves to be the world’s greatest power, that it once was, and that it will be again, and the Chinese Communist Party will lead China to this greatness while at the same time leading the world to its Marxist future.
Due to European military dependence on the US, Europe has been deferential to the US. They let the US use their land and facilities even for wars they disagreed with.
Defending Europe is not a driver of US spending. Europe spending more is good, but it won’t make the defense of the US and its interests cheaper. If the relationship is too damaged, it will make it more expensive.
It looks like Ukraine will be given permission to produce Patriot missiles, but likely not the best kind which they most need to protect their cities from Russian ballistic missiles.
It could take a long time to actually start producing missiles.
A regime change war against Iran had a chance of succeeding, but it required both commitment to a longer war and preparing the Iranian opposition on the ground. The Trump administration, despite essentially declaring a regime-change war at the beginning by calling on the Iranian people to soon rise up, did not appear to much help the Iranian opposition and had no stomach for the length of war necessary to give regime change a chance.
The world underestimated Russia’s ability to rebuild its military and its willingness to invade other countries. Yet, people don’t think there’s any possibility of Russia invading countries other than Ukraine! NATO and the United States better remain wary and prepared.