This is exigent to repost: The Ghost of Henry Kissinger Speaks; Ukraine, Israel, Saudi Arabia. Quoting in entirety,

Henry Kissinger, so recently deprived of his own voice, speaks to us now through his voluminous writings on realpolitik.

The current issues of U.S. foreign policy are fraught with moral dilemmas  that resist solution or even separation. Realpolitik does not address these dilemmas. It does offer predictions. If the following are not addressed as commitments that must be met,

• • • • Security guarantees for Saudi Arabia
      • Arms for Ukraine
      • Arms for Israel

,where the list order is deliberately counterintuitive,

• • • • The dollar will crash.
      • The bond market will tumble.
      • Alternatives to SWIFT will rapidly proliferate.
      • The split off of the Global South will accelerate.
      • Russia/Iran will emerge to rival China as a threat.
      • The world will become more distinctly unpleasant than it is now.

Republicans, remember that Kissinger was a Republican. This is your watch. He speaks loud to you now, through the veil.

President Trump’s focus on mineral wealth is equivalent to establishing a mercantile economy. This can work, but requires a superlative military, not one diminished to the extent of unilateral disarmament. Secretary Hegseth’s experience is limited to the tip of the spear. It takes a general officer, or brilliant civilian manager, preferably with technical background, to understand that the power of the tip comes from the weight of the shank.

To the extent that the U.S. fails to honor Ukraine’s sacrifice in defence of their national identity, to the extent that the U.S. concedes to Russian murder of Ukrainians and Russians alike, the honor of the United States is at stake. This might be understood as the business term goodwill.

The result will not be something to be remarked upon by historians. It will bite us in the ass short term. Once goodwill is lost, it cannot be recovered.

The 8% DoD budget cuts, rather than increase, will render us helpless in the face of our enemies. Compensation with some major’s dream of “warrior  culture”, beyond what is already highly developed in U.S. over multiple generations of service, is crap. Once the base is lost, it cannot be regenerated in a time frame relevant to conflict.