One can reason that engaging in an arms race is not a good idea neither. It may, on a systemic level accelerate things, and you may end up creating the world yo

One can reason that engaging in an arms race is not a good idea neither. It may, on a systemic level accelerate things, and you may end up creating the world you wanted to prevent. Moreover, everything seems obvious afterwards. But what if Putin had not started rampaging? The opportunity cost of spending 100B on defense if it wasn't needed, is huge. Integrated over decades, that sort of money is (part of) the difference between having a German economy and a Russian economy. Also, investments age. It may make sense to make upgrades only when you need them. Those are all maybes. I don't have the answer. But I think it'd good to have in mind that the world is more complex than that.