The real lie -- the most egregious falsehood -- from the MIC has been fed to us for decades: the MIC has consistently told us that Russia (and now China) are equivalent militarily to Western forces, and we need the funding to counter that enormous threat.
They've used that nonsensical garbage to line their own pockets, and those of their well-connected friends.
Warner himself essentially (inadvertently) admits that in this interview. If Ukraine, with only 3% of our defense budget, can bring the "mighty Russian Bear" to a stalemate, why have we spent 30-times that amount? Wealth, for those in and around the MIC.
There is no way, on God's green Earth, that a country with a GDP less than the state of California can have a military the equivalent of a Western nation, especially the United States. It's a lie, it's always been a lie, and Putin has revealed that truth to the world. It's a third-world nation with a garbage, third-world military.
When folks wonder about Russia, the best zero propaganda way to learn what life is like there is via youtube videos produced by vloggers PRIOR TO 2022. There are many.
Also prior to 2022, from about 2011, the only access for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station was via the hyper-reliable Soyuz spacecraft.
Shut up and stop asking the obvious. Your free thinking is noted and there will be consequences.
China and Russia are massive land powers. If you go fight them on their border, you are going to lose. They are puny sea or global military entities. Countering their non existent global threats is where we waste all of our money. When we blunder into countering their actual stregths (on their border), we are the puny one.