Posted on 08/25/2022 6:47:35 PM PDT by elpadre
"A valuable present for Ukraine on the occasion of its Independence Day! U.S. President Joe Biden announced the allocation of nearly $3 billion in military aid to our state. The package includes air defense systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, artillery systems, and radars," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Shmyhal as saying on social media.
In addition, the Ukrainian state budget on Wednesday received another $3 billion as a non-refundable grant from the U.S. via the World Bank mechanism, the prime minister said.
"This is the first tranche from the additional $4.5 billion of direct budget aid," he said.
Some of it, no doubt, going to the FR Neocons here.
Someone is grumpy that their check from Кремль bounced.
“Someone is grumpy that their check from Кремль bounced.”
If you knew how crappy Putin pays us, you’d know a bounced check wouldn’t even be noticed.
Hmmmm, I’m of Ukrainian heritage.
Where’s my cut?
More U.S. Taxpayer money thrown down the RAT hole.
If Biden keeps this up, the Ukraine will have a bigger
annual defense budget than the United States.
Quid pro joe is prolly averaging over $2billion a week carved out & sent to ukraine since the conflict started
Gotta be a huge money maker for the big guy!
We have the best war machine because we've long had nearly perpetual low-intensity war for the edges to sharpen against. Continuous war has been unwritten policy since before most of us were born. War is an art which must be practiced.
It's been an effective policy but the price was incredibly high and was mostly paid by the populace trapped in the war du jour. Trump committed cardinal sin by spinning down Afghanistan without spinning up the next war on the schedule. The MIIC found itself looking at a funding gap caused by no more war supplemental funds added to each budget. Horror!
They stole the election and got Joe in so they could get Ukraine, at least, spun up. Even with the few billion here and few billion there, Ukraine is thin gruel compared to the two Gulf wars or certainly Vietnam. It's like the vampire reduced to feasting on small animals because human victims aren't available.
It must be incredible, that dirt Zelensky has on the Bidens...
The World Bank used fake, dirty money to bribe third world countries with.
It’s located close to the White House and pallets of Treasury dollars can be seen loading into the rear of the World Bank building.
Biden knows every tricking the book on how to fleece US taxpayers.....
*MAGA First/Anti-War/Anti-Globalist Ping*
If you want on or off this list, please let me know.
I’m just wondering…whose laundry is being done. Pelosi? Romney, Biden? Or some other American oligarch getting a cut?
You do wonder huh.
We just announce one gift of billions and there’s another.
Something other than Ukraine defense seems to be slithering
around under the surface.
I supported moderate assistance to help the Ukraine, but
this is anything but moderate.
If any of those entities are proven to be getting a cut, I’d
support Justice at sunrise.
Some profit by defense contractors is expected, but
windfall? No!
If they are spreading it around, some people in and close
to our government deserve to be tried and executed.
Trump committed cardinal sin by spinning down Afghanistan without spinning up the next war on the schedule.
Trump substantially increased Defense spending and while in office generally halted the wussification of our forces. No need to "spin up" a war, one we could not ignore would be sure to come along anyway without our "War Machine" or pols to force it. At least we are a little more ready for it in terms of equipment. (My view of the world is probably a bit different from yours, but aligns with Reagan: Take away the USA and "the West" (with all its faults) and IMO we are all just radioactive dust, likely for some time, or, slaves in much of an Old World sense, by now.)
D1, I am afraid you are seriously underestimating the cost of modern war on this sort of scale. The amount of weaponry and munitions the Russians are pouring into their effort is monumental. One estimate had the Russians at firing 60,000 rounds of artillery a day. In some instances they field a 50 or more to 1 advantage over the Ukies. Oh, sure, our more expensive per piece weapons are often more effective per weapon. They are not THAT more effective.
Back to cost: Look at the HIMARS launchers. We sent Ukraine a handful. Poland, NOT a wealthy country, just ordered 500. That’s right, 500. Poland has also committed to 1000 next generation K2 (S. Korean and still pricey) tanks, in addition to an order of 366 M1’s from the USA (250 are the latest M1A2 SEPv3.) Those K2 tanks are 8.5 billion dollars right there. Ammo in the event of a real dust-up not included.
Now in the case of our aid to Ukraine, we passed a $40 billion package, a good bit of which is not weaponry, as some of it is monetary and humanitarian aid. In any event, we then slowly dole it out: A billion here, a few billion there... So that’s why every month or so we see an announcement of “new” aid, although it’s really not new — it is already in the “main” pipeline, and then once in a while Brandon turns on a spigot to one or another garden hose from where it will take weeks or months to actually get to the Ukies.
Given Ukraine’s reputation, some is surely lost to graft, but, there are organizations that track the more substantial flows of illicit weapons. I’d guess our CIA would NOT broadcast evidence of, say, a shipment of our howitzers showing up in, oh, Libyan opposition’ hands. But, others and some NGO’s would.
It should be possible to root out true windfalls to contractors as well.
I certainly agree any activity of those sorts should be aggressively prosecuted. But, that’s a side issue.
So far as I can determine from a variety of sources, Russia is spending around $900 million a day on this war. That doesn’t seem to include some recent losses and various intangibles, so, I’ll round it up to $1 billion a day. Multiply by the number of days in the war. OTOH, Western military aid tends to be much lower bang for the buck once one gets past the Stingers, smaller anti-tank weapons, and such. If we really want to see the Ukies push the Russians back to Russia, while holding the country together enough to take care of its people, then we (the West) need to spend perhaps $2 billion a day. It’s Europe’s problem more than ours - I say they kick in 2/3. Done correctly, this should take under a year (to maintain that level.)
I invite your comparison with Brandon’s spending on other things. What we are doing now for Ukraine’s defense is a weak dribble in the bucket.
No, wars do not simply “come along”, spaced out one after another over decades. They are planned business operations, run for immense profit. Increased defense spending is only one slice of the big pie.
Wars are chaos, and chaos is opportunity for the prepared. Opportunity to loot national treasuries and grab many other goodies. Opportunity to launder billion$ as is happening in the Ukraine war now.
Trump did not deliver a war to the syndicate who thinks it runs the planet, and for that he will never be forgiven.
Yeah, that makes sense also.
The drib and drab of doling out the funds seems a bit more
reasoned the way you explain it.
I agree, Europe should pitch in, no doubt.
I find it interesting that all the bad information about
Russian troops was cast off as propaganda. But now the
forces of 100-150 thousand that first entered the Ukraine
are now having to be bumped up by 135 thousand.
Why? I mean Russia hasn’t lost a thing according to its
supporters.
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