Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with allies in Brussels to discuss Ukraine's needs during the war against Russia. Meanwhile, Russia's crushing offensive in the Donbas is about to lead to the occupation of two important cities that are still not under Moscow's control..

Western weapons desperately needed by Ukraine to counter the Russian offensive are arriving too slowly on the battlefield. The situation indicates that the US is once again following an already bitter familiar pattern: first, it intervenes in a conflict abroad, has some success at the beginning, and then stops halfway before achieving its goals.. American journalist and writer Richard Bershtein writes about this in an article for the Wall Street Journal..

He calls the pattern he describes the “half-measure trap.”. Since World War II, the United States has faced two conflicting imperatives several times.. On the one hand, they took steps, including military ones, to respond to aggression or a certain kind of threat.. On the other hand, America tried to limit its reaction in order to reduce the cost and risks in case the initial steps turned out to be inappropriate for the tasks set..

Afghanistan was the latest. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, there was a clear need to eliminate the direct organizers of the attacks. Al-Qaeda was kicked out of its terrorist bases, and the Taliban were stripped of power. New government takes over in Kabul. But the Taliban continued the guerrilla war with the support of Pakistan. And finally, endless warfare, public impatience, and an inability to win without a politically unacceptable permanent presence in the country led to the humiliating US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.. The Taliban are back in power.

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Another case where the US fell into the same trap was the half-sincere US support for the Nationalist camp in the Chinese Civil War of 1945-1949.. The Chinese government was unable to maintain power, losing to the communists. Vietnam is another dramatic example. More than 500,000 US troops were sent to the country, of which 60,000 died.. And at first glance, it's hard to call a half-measure. But considering the losses, the society became disillusioned and did not support decisive actions aimed at containing North Vietnam, which led to the American retreat.. When North Vietnam invaded the South in 1975, Congress rejected a petition from President Ford's administration to transfer needed aid.. And Saigon fell.

And now Ukraine. The pressure to stand up to Vladimir Putin's barbaric and unprovoked invasion has led to an almost global consensus that, as US Treasury Secretary Janet Ellen said, " Deliveries of lethal weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, drones and Stinger missiles, played a major role in early success. Kyiv did not fall. Russian forces were defeated and forced to retreat.

But now, despite heavy sanctions and more than $5 billion in arms shipments, the Russian army looks set to take over the entire Donbas.. This will allow Putin to declare a partial victory and continue the offensive in Ukraine. Reacting to this situation, the United States again falls into the \? Perhaps if the necessary weapons were delivered quickly enough, Ukraine could stop the Russian offensive.. But it looks like it took the Biden administration three months to dare send the Ukrainian army MLRS. It was decided to transfer four such systems of multiple rocket launchers. But they are still not in Ukraine. And Kyiv says that he needs 300 such installations.

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The reason for such slow action was the concern that the supply of more lethal weapons would provoke Russia into an expansion of the war, and possibly even the use of a nuclear arsenal.. For the same reason, Biden immediately announced that there would be no American troops on Ukrainian territory.. And no one will close the Ukrainian sky. And Ukraine will not attack the Russian army on the territory of the Russian Federation with the help of American weapons. In other words, the initial desire to help Ukraine is shattered by a counter desire to limit this assistance.. It is the same as it was in all previous conflicts: in Lebanon in 1983, in Somalia in 1993-1994, in Iraq, as well as in China, Afghanistan and Vietnam. If the “half-measure trap” works this time as well, and Ukraine fails, America’s enemies, and especially China, will learn a clear lesson: if we stick to our line long enough, the US will not take the hard and expensive steps needed to win..