It looks like the Russian military has been decimated by the Ukrainian war — loss of generals, admirals, equipment, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, naval ships, air defense and more. At this point, what would Putin really like? How about serious damage to the U.S. military? How about removing all the generals and other flag officers like Trump folks are threatening to do and just (bloodlessly) decapitating the armed services of seasoned officers? How about appointing a TV celebrity as Secretary to the Department of Defense? How about also driving out the lower-level officers by holding up all their promotions and family movement for months due to Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on promotions? Coincidence or Putin? (China likes it, too.) What else don’t we know about? Or is it good old Republican governance, chaos, complicity with a foreign power or plain old corruption and grift? Elections have consequences.

Ronald Cummings

Madison