US Republican Senator John Cornyn warned that the conflict in Ukraine is the beginning of other conflicts, not the end, because power-hungry dictators will not be satisfied with achieving small territorial gains, as he put it.
Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas, said that a little bit of success would whet the appetite of those dictators, and that not only Russian President Vladimir Putin but also Chinese President Xi Jinping was involved.
The Republican senator indicated, in an article published by Newsweek, that the Chinese president did not hide his desire to invade Taiwan, and that the Chinese Communist Party has been asserting that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory.
Cornyn said President Xi has stated that he wants to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
In his article, the US Senator touched on the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on the United States and the world, noting that despite the positive developments related to it, the military aid to Ukraine revealed the major deficiencies in the US defense industry.
He said that the estimates of the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicate that America will need 6 years to compensate for the shortfall in its stock of live ammunition of 155 mm caliber, and it will need longer than that to compensate for the shortfall in its stock of Stinger and Javelin missiles, both of which are essential to Ukraine's progress in the war.
Cornyn believes that the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on the military readiness of the US army is worrisome, but the cost of refraining from supporting Ukraine will be higher.
Speaking about the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the United States, the US senator gave an example of what happened in 1938, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain described the escalating conflict between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia as "a conflict in a far country between people we know nothing about," and said Less than two years later, Nazi bombs were raining down on London.
Cornyn believes that America should take basic steps to prepare for future conflicts, based on the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, including maintaining America and its allies' commitment to support Ukraine until it wins the war.
He also believes that "defeating Russia is the only way to prevent this conflict from spreading across borders in Europe and to keep NATO forces out of the picture, as it also shows President Xi that the West is working steadily in defense of democracy."