The fact of the matter is that not a single person in these comments or the press is privileged to the information that Sullivan and the president see. Most of congress doesn’t see it either and even the ones that do see very limited views of it. What might look like “slow walking” from an outside observer could look very different when you see all the information.

There can be many many reasons that you wouldn’t want to send it all right now. From pure logistics capability, to time to backfill, to balancing other threats. I’m a huge Ukraine supporter since my girlfriend and many friends live there but I don’t succumb to thinking that this war in Ukraine is the only thing going on in the world. And many of those things can have an indirect impact on the future of this war.

U.S. foreign and military policy has to balance many facets and areas from Israel, Palestine, Yemen, and the Red Sea to Taiwan, Philippines, and the South China Sea to issues across central Africa and many smaller issues all over the world. The U.S. military is not infinite (Even if much of the people in the U.S. would like to pretend it is.) and it does have limits. You always want to keep something in reserve. And I’m saying nothing about economic or political balancing that has to be done on top of that.

The world is not black and white, good and evil. Every country, every leader, has their own motivations that might align with ours at a given point but also might not given different circumstances. Keeping firm allies and soft allies alike is important. Keeping favorable politicians in power domestically and abroad is important. All of these things influence each other.

It’s all way more complicated than just “send all the firepower now” as all the armchair generals keep shouting.