THE LEAST THAT BEING A US ALLY SHOULD MEAN...:

The Ukraine war may not seem like a space war, but it is. The Russians are using space-based communications, reconnaissance satellites, and GPS-guided munitions. Disabling these would greatly weaken the Russian forces' capacity for aggression. The US has cyber warfare capabilities that can do the job, and if we were to share some of this know-how with our Ukrainian friends, they could really throw the Russians off their game.

Taking this step would help a lot. Without satellite reconnaissance, the Russians would know much less about Ukrainian troop and supply movements, significantly reducing their ability to use air power to dominate the country.

But Russian airpower itself must be curtailed as well. We have the means to do it. Our fighters are much better than anything they have. Based in Poland and Rumania, they could fly into Ukraine, and together with Ukraine's plucky little air force - which against expectations has not yet been eliminated - challenge Russia for control of the skies. We might not be able to achieve total air supremacy over Ukraine, but we could certainly take away Russia's ability to safely use helicopters or transport planes to move airborne forces within its borders, or to have its ground attack aircraft wandering around looking for trucks, trains, or other targets of opportunity to shoot up. This would make all the difference.

Vladimir Putin knows we have the ability to do this, which is why he issued a stark warning to anyone who might "interfere" with his invasion. This threat cannot be honored. It has no limiting principle. Russia has no more "right" to bomb Kyiv than it does to bomb Warsaw or Paris.  If we submit to this threat now, on what basis would we choose to resist it when Putin demands that we not "interfere" when he invades the Baltic States? The fact that they are NATO members does not provide any more basis in international law to make these countries sacrosanct from invasion than Ukraine - not that it would matter if it did. On the contrary, all the arguments against taking a stand to stop Putin would be even stronger after Russia's might has been increased by the conquest of other nations.

The claim that having our fighters engage Russia's over Ukraine would lead to nuclear war has no basis. Our fighters engaged Soviets fighters over Korea and Vietnam, and Russian fighters over Syria. These engagements did not result in nuclear war, or even conventional war between the superpowers. The reason why they did not is because neither power wanted that. Russia is having a hard enough time taking on Ukraine. The last thing they want is to bring NATO fully into the fight.

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