The next Republican president will do two or three things to put Putin back in his box.
1. Provide long-range escort fighters or staggered fighter protection via NATO bases.
2. Suddenly shoulder-fired AA missiles are going to start popping up in the Ukraine and Syria, in the hands of “friendlies” who are being attacked by the Russians.
After losing about 5-10 planes, Putin will get the message.
In Afghanistan, our Stingers (and the British BlowPipe) missiles shot down over 50, and maybe as many as 80 Soviet jets, bombers, and helicopters in a short period of time.
This denied the Soviets air superiority re bombing targets on the ground, and air/troop mobility, esp. of the Spetnaz troops in the mountains. This deprived them of the ability to land on the top of mountains and large hills, thus gaining a firing ability against the Mujaheedin below.
That is why either Gorbachev or Yeltsin (or both)started troop removals in the late 80s. Without air superiority, they were doomed to terrible ambushes on the ground and knew it.
My own preference to 1. get out of Nato.
2. close our borders 3. mind our own business and problems 4. NUKE UP.
>2. Suddenly shoulder-fired AA missiles are going to start popping up in the Ukraine and Syria, in the hands of “friendlies” who are being attacked by the Russians.
Just the Ukraine. I don’t trust anyone in Syria who would not turn over our weapons that we give them over to someone like Al-Qaeda or ISIS.
I mean that I don’t trust anyone in Syria to not give our weapons over to any of the Islamists. Please disregard my private message. It was a accident.