All the “realpolitik” types assume that if NATO/the US went to war with Russia, we’d be slugging it out on the ground with artillery like the Ukrainians are currently doing. Come on, y’all, it just would not happen that way. There’s a reason we spend so goddamn much on our air power, and it’s not to send people to die in artillery barrages.
Hint: artillery is big, difficult to move, easy to see and when you fire it, the fucking round leads right back to your position.
We don’t have to fight like the Ukrainians are fighting because we have tons of things the Ukrainians do not and likely never will.