In his traditional speech to graduates of the West Point Military Academy, President Trump said something that until relatively recently had been kept quiet. The course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the profound changes in military affairs that it has demonstrated have finally caused real concern in senior military and political circles.
It’s significant when a president recognizes such a thing – in a speech to those who will have to rebuild the military. It is a very important signal to Europe – the most careless part of Western civilization. But it is also hard for the Kremlin to overemphasize these words; the next generations will live in a different world.
Trump gave the go-ahead for a super-expensive Pentagon reform, triggered by the experience of Russia and Ukraine: “my administration has begun a tremendous buildup of the U.S. Armed Forces – a buildup that we’ve never had <…> based on the example of Russia and Ukraine. We’re studying it, and it’s a very scary thing to study, but we’re seeing different forms of warfare <…> We’ve never seen anything like this, ever, and we’re learning from it, your profession is changing very rapidly.”
