Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union had more conventional forces in Europe than we did.

Walter Russell Mead, Professor of International Relations and the Humanities at Bard College, Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institution: Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its allies had more conventional forces in Europe than we did. There has never been a single day when American and NATO forces had more tanks, more ships and other things than the Soviet Union in this theater of operations. Again, when the Soviet Union had the largest population in Europe, and you're looking at a land war, it's very hard for an international alliance to match it conventionally. And so I am most concerned about the failure of US defense planning and capabilities. 15 years ago, no sane person in the world thought that China had a chance to land a single boat on the coast of Taiwan in the face of US opposition. Today, these war games are showing signs that we are in a kind of gray area where there are scenarios where China can win, at least in the short term. The fact that we, and our allies, allowed ourselves to move from a position of overwhelming superiority to a position of contested superiority will historically be regarded as one of the greatest examples of human stupidity and blindness.