I do understand those arguments, and the US has been a true ally to Ukraine - much more than the Europeans who generally didn’t spend as much as they should have, and sometimes added additional layers of caution (Olaf Scholz in particular).

But if you take a “don’t criticize us” attitude, you won’t be open to any lessons that might be learned. The lesson I hope the West, Europe in particular, would learn is that timidity and weakness invites aggression from someone like Putin.

Yes, it does add up to a lot, but it always came in just enough to keep Russia at bay. Also the permissions around where and how which weapons could be used.
When Russia invaded, Putin had no idea how corrupt, weak and inefficient his forces were.
This trickle allowed Russia enough time to turn around much of that, getting us to the point where they are now severely threatening Ukraine. If the military aid was more decisive, Russia could have been defeated early on, and the total spend could have been less than where it is now.

He is not an Afrikaner - as the child of immigrants he went to English schools, and has nothing to do with Afrikaans.

Your prejudice makes you dishonest.

While he grew up in SA, he has no loyalty to South Africa either. We don’t want him nor be associated with him

Reich did not suggest using a British alternative.
His words from the article: “The sooner the US government revokes his security clearance, terminates its contracts with him and the entities he controls, and builds its own alternatives to Starlink and SpaceX, the safer America will be”

Do you really need to be an expert to see a problem with Musk’s Russian sympathies?

The point is that to protect the Nato countries in Europe, Nato should have, and could have done a lot more to defeat Russia’s imperialist aims before it reaches the Nato countries doorstep

Please read the article

Would it be incorrect to think that Mark Twain already described how scammers feed off the US religious right in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884). I am referring to “The King” and “the Duke”.

I think you should add in promoting the imperial interests of a very hostile power, Russia, to your list.

There is still some contestation within the Republicans - unfortunately not as strong in the House as in the Senate. Some strong words feature in the article:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called Carlson Russia’s “useful idiot.” After Navalny’s death, he added: “History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy. Nor will history be kind to America’s leaders who stay silent because they fear backlash from online pundits.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) urged fellow Republican and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to “spend less time pushing Russian propaganda.”

A top political aide to Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) promoted Young’s denunciation of Navalny’s death by saying, “My U.S. Senator is not a venal Putin apologist, but I’m less sure about yours.”

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Navalny was killed by the “same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends.” Haley soon noted that, while Trump weighed in repeatedly on NATO this week and posted dozens of times on Truth Social on Friday, he hasn’t yet mentioned Navalny . Former Trump vice president Mike Pence posted, more generally, “There is no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Putin.

Pretty hard for me to see a difference between a pacifist and a tankie

Good for them, but you have to wonder: why be in a traitorous party if you’re not a traitor yourself.

It is Russia that started the war, and is “stoking” it. The countries that assist Ukraine with arms are doing so to prevent Russian imperialism from expanding into Europe and beyond. It is very necessary that they continue to do so.

From the article:

Predictions of a Russian economic collapse—made almost uniformly by Western economists and politicians at the start of the war in Ukraine—have proven thumpingly wrong

The cost to Russia of Putin’s imperialism is not collapse, it is the huge loss of lives, and the future economic pain and job losses that will be needed to bring inflation back under control