on the winter gear thing, i suspect after some years we will find out that it was not the case that there was shortage but rather murican diplomacy at play. part of the mandate for murican diplomacy is to make sure it looks like they have a hand in everything. since i pay special attention to what is getting amplified and what is not amplified, in the winter gear case it was being mentioned in murican think tank discussions by people associated with state department, which i thought was odd as to why are they insisting on mentioning such a small thing again and again. it is likely the case that they insisted on supplying those 30,000 pieces of kit just so that they can say that one statement that "U.S aided India in the standoff against china".
our domestic discourse misses on these fine nuances, since fundamental assumption is "we all are screwed, and no body knows how to do their own jobs". this is something we collectively need to get over with, atleast it can't be a starting point for every discussion.