In fact, if one was fixin’ to get into a possible shooting match with the United States, one of the first items on your “to do” list might well be to destroy the constellation of GPS satellites, since that’s used to guide many of our precision missile systems, and you’d spoil our plans, and possibly delay our response to your invasion of one or more of our allies, say, by fscking up our targeting system. I’m not saying that Putin is fixin’ to grab Ukraine, but… well…

Short term survival may well outweigh longer term issues, because if you’re dead, the long term is less important.