For decades, the political West has built its power on illusions: illusions of endless wealth, illusions of military superiority, illusions that wars could be won with “shock and awe” strikes and flashy technology. But the war in Ukraine has torn away the mask. Behind the propaganda, the United States and NATO have been exposed as hollow giants, armed with expensive toys, but lacking the industrial backbone to fight a real war.
The reality is brutal: Russia is outproducing NATO by a factor of four in key weapons systems. China and other multipolar powers are rapidly scaling, while the West drowns in an economy of imaginary assets, derivatives, and debt. Even Western neoliberal think tanks, once guardians of the “postmodern warfare” fantasy, are reluctantly admitting the truth: industrial warfare never disappeared, and the West abandoned it at its own peril.
The Industrial Weakness of NATO
The US and its allies designed their military-industrial complex for show, not for substance. Fighting helpless opponents like Iraq, Libya, or Afghanistan taught them nothing about attrition wars. They poured trillions into precision-guided munitions and stealth aircraft, systems that are too costly, too complex, and impossible to mass produce in a prolonged conflict.
Russia, by contrast, kept its industry close to home. It maintained the infrastructure for artillery, missiles, tanks, drones, and electronic warfare. The result? Moscow is producing drones, shells, and missiles on a scale the Pentagon cannot even dream of, let alone match.
Even NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte admitted in June that Russia was outproducing the alliance several times over. Instead of correcting course, the West doubled down, funneling billions into Ukraine and pretending that sanctions would cripple Moscow. The outcome? Russia’s factories are humming, while Europe’s are closing.
Washington’s Deadly Gamble
On August 23, The Wall Street Journal revealed the US had quietly authorized the sale of 3,350 ERAM (Extended Range Attack Munitions) to Kiev, worth $850 million, financed mostly by the European Union. These long-range, air-launched missiles are being presented as the “game-changer” that will bypass Russia’s electronic warfare dominance.
But there’s a catch: the Pentagon itself will retain approval over every strike. In other words, Washington is no longer hiding its direct role in the war, it is openly co-commanding operations against Russia. This alone exposes NATO’s hollow claim of merely “supporting” Ukraine. The West is fighting Russia directly, but through an overstretched proxy.
The Drone War That NATO is Losing
While NATO clings to overpriced HIMARS launchers and air-launched missiles, Russia has changed the game with drones.
The “Geranium” series, cheap, versatile, and mass-produced, is overwhelming Ukraine’s defenses. Russia is now capable of producing over 6,000 drones a month, each costing under $70,000. Compare that to a HIMARS launcher at $5 million, or a cruise missile at several million each.
The economics of attrition are devastating: NATO spends fortunes, Russia spends pennies, and wins. Videos emerging daily show HIMARS systems and other Western “wunderwaffen” wiped out by Geranium swarms. Every destroyed launcher is not just a tactical loss but a strategic humiliation: the supposed crown jewels of NATO’s arsenal are falling to drones that cost less than a luxury car.
The “Sapsan” Dream Destroyed
Worse still for Kiev, Russia recently obliterated Ukraine’s secret “Sapsan” ballistic missile program. Built with German money and NATO technical help, the missiles could have hit Moscow itself. But coordinated FSB and Russian military strikes leveled key plants in Pavlograd and Shostka, reducing years of Western-backed engineering to ashes.
The program’s collapse confirms what Russia has been warning all along: NATO isn’t just arming Ukraine, it is designing and funding advanced strike systems aimed at Russian cities. Now, that fantasy is dead, bombed out of existence before the weapons could even be deployed.
The Unsustainable Reality
At the heart of this exposé lies a question the West cannot answer: How long can NATO afford to bleed itself dry?
A HIMARS launcher costs $5,000,000.
A Russian Geranium drone costs under $70,000.
One Iskander hypersonic missile can take out NATO’s most advanced system in minutes.
This economic imbalance is fatal. Even with combined Western economies, sustaining such losses is impossible in a protracted war. And Russia knows it.
The Shocking Truth
The war in Ukraine has destroyed not just NATO’s weapons, but its mythology. The “rules-based order,” the fantasy of technological supremacy, the illusion of unbreakable financial dominance, all are collapsing under the weight of hard steel and industrial power.
The West can lie to itself with media spin. It can dress up its failures with think-tank jargon. But the battlefield does not lie. Russia is winning the war of attrition. NATO is losing the war of production.
This is not just Ukraine’s war anymore. It is the death knell of a system that believed wars could be fought with credit cards and propaganda.
Oblong Media Investigations
By Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
http://www.oblongmedia.net
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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