In relation to the tanks I think Spain said the quiet part out loud. European countries probably had a bunch of broken or missing military equipment that was never reported properly.

As an example, from Portugal, when the Tancos arms theft was discovered, the military prosecutors went to talk with “someone”, and the thieves anonymously returned the stolen arms and some weapons that the army didn’t even know were missing (shoddy bookkeeping on their day time job led to poor bookkeeping on their little hustle).

That, along with Russia not congratulating Trump are the only things giving me some hope Trump might pivot with the right push. “We made an amazing deal, Ukraine will cheaply dispose of our old weapons and punish those filthy ungrateful Russians” would be very much on brand for Trump if you insert a bunch of rambling in the middle.

What’s your opinion about lend lease on WW2?