This without a doubt is the most stupefying, mind-bending military injunction ever issued in a time of war — the U.S. condition attached to the long-range missiles (ATACMS) shipped to Ukraine within the last month. The condition is a familiar one, stemming from the Biden administration's yearslong fretting that Vladimir Putin might become displeased with the United States.
The U.S. provided the missiles to the defending country being systematically leveled by invading Russian forces using missiles and drones with the firm stipulation that its missiles are to be used only inside Ukrainian territory, never on Russian soil, as Reuters reports.
This stipulation still attached even after Russia used "North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January, despite U.S. public and private warnings not to do so," said a U.S. official.
Give this some thought. Then see if you're not as stupefied as I ...
Russia may import North Korean long-range missiles and then use them to obliterate Ukraine's energy structures, hospitals, schools and residential buildings, massacring untold numbers of civilians in the process, but Ukraine may not use imported missiles from the U.S. to strike military bases and logistics centers in Russia.
Because otherwise, Vladimir might be roused to unpleasantness.
Ukraine is fighting for its life against Putin's butchery, which he can execute because of his vast stores of war matériel parked inside his borders, then shipped to in-country forces or sent screaming through the night air. And all those munitions are safe as a babe in arms, no pun intended.
I won't be the only one whose mind is bent by this lunacy. Military historians will for ages look back on it and ask, Wha?