Posted on 07/18/2022 5:32:42 AM PDT by daniel1212
The more than $40 billion in additional aid to Ukraine approved by Congress on Thursday brings the total U.S. commitment during the Russian invasion to roughly $54 billion, when combined with the aid package passed in March..[which] includes money for logistical support and training for Ukrainian military and national security forces, and for a fund intended to secure the continuity of Ukraine’s government...
Forty percent of the aid has been directed to weapons transfers, to provide medical and intelligence support to allied countries in Europe, and to deploy troops there. The bill passed Thursday allows President Biden to authorize the transfer of an additional $11 billion in American weapons, equipment and defense supplies to Ukraine,..
A smaller part of the aid will go to domestic agencies to enforce the sanctions and export control measures taken by the government to debilitate Russia's economy. And some aid will be directed to diplomatic programs that help maintain U.S. citizen services in the area...
It can be hard to comprehend the scale of such sums...Of the $54 billion in total spending by the United States, $31.4 billion can be considered traditional foreign aid. That’s higher than any annual amount given by the U.S. to a country in the last decade,... it is roughly two times the amount given in 2011 to Afghanistan, the largest U.S. foreign aid recipient until now.
It’s more than what the government spent last year on highway grants ($43 billion), but less than what it spent on health insurance premium tax credits ($56 billion)....Six years of a universal preschool program, for example, would cost roughly twice as much as the aid packages to Ukraine...Relative to the size of the economy, the U.S. contribution to Ukraine ranks fourth,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
My two cents: Certainly Putin should be opposed as a dictator invader (of a very valuable land) and much a enemy of conservative Christians (banning them from sharing faith unless his state church allows it , and seeks former Soviet glory (which the West initially enabled), yet at least he opposes the LGBTQ army, while the liberal West - which wishes it could rule as Putin does - opposes him as being competition, and not a team player, which it seeks Ukraine more to be.
And the people of Ukraine are suffering devastation and should be free, yet in addition to the issue of its Russian population, the country has a history of corruption (as does Russia, which could inherit US hardware from Ukraine) and the massive amounts of money US dispenses (rather than direct military involvement) to Ukraine under the premise of promoting freedom can foster the very opposite, that of the US becoming a economically devastated country. .
Thus resulting in government mandated rationing, and increasing dependence upon government, along with restrictions on freedom of movement, association and conservative speech. Which the reaction of Covid-19 served to condition the general public to .
Thus, as much as Putin should be put in his place and Ukrainians have traditional freedoms (and Russian areas accommodated), yet the goal of the liberal West itself is that of dominion.
$650 Billion IFM aid?!?! Wow, wow wow & bizarre!
Don’t forget the billions in dark money blown in the area. We obviously have plenty to waste in Europe. We get to arm, man and supply 800 more miles of deadbeat NATO border when Finland and Sweden start playing us for chumps this year.
Why are we paying for Ukraine’s war? This is ridiculous. Bring back Trump bring back Trump.
“$650 Billion IFM aid!”
The vast majority of which comes from the US taxpayer.
L
A feller could build a whole heck of a lot of wall along the border with money like that.
That is IMF = International Monetary Fund and yes, it is massive. The careless spending of Washington could result in the US asking for such itself - if there is any left.
And the MIC keeps rolling along...
I wonder how much of this will end up in Swiss or other foreign bank accounts and how much in terms of weapons will end up in the Russians hands after they win that war.
"When you actually look at the substance of what this administration has done, not the rhetoric but the substance, this administration has been much tougher on Russia than any in the post-Cold War era," said Daniel Vajdich, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Take military spending: Trump sought to add $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2018 to the European Deterrence Initiative — a military effort to deter Russian aggression that was initially known as the European Reassurance Initiative. That's a 41 percent increase from the last year of the Obama administration. The president also agreed to send lethal weapons to Ukraine — a step that Obama resisted. And Trump gave U.S. forces in Syria more leeway to engage with Russian troops. - from NPR no less. https://www.npr.org/2018/07/20/630659379/is-trump-the-toughest-ever-on-russia
And those who protest NATO's overall spending of only about 3% of its GDP are opposing Trump. For contrary to being a Putin puppet as the Left prevaricates - and who were blaming him in Feb. 2020 for this invasion, and contrary to you - the Trump,
July 11, 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump told NATO leaders on Wednesday they should increase their defense spending to 4 percent of their country’s economic output, double the group’s current goal of two percent/4/3/19..nearly all 29 NATO members have increased their defense spending since Trump came to office, and at least 16 of the 29 are on track to meet their 2024 defense spending goals. Defense spending among 27 NATO allies has increased consistently between 2016 and 2018, with Hungary, Norway, Romania and Turkey making some of the biggest increases.
October 21, 2020 NATO spending has increased for the sixth consecutive year thanks to new contributions from allies, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in prepared remarks Wednesday...Canada and European countries' spending increased this year at a rate of 4.3 percent...Russia and China's aggressive behavior during Trump's term is one reason for the allies' increased spending.
this administration has been much tougher on Russia than any in the post-Cold War era," said Daniel Vajdich, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council....
Take military spending: Trump sought to add $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2018 to the European Deterrence Initiative — a military effort to deter Russian aggression that was initially known as the European Reassurance Initiative. That's a 41 percent increase from the last year of the Obama administration. The president also agreed to send lethal weapons to Ukraine — a step that Obama resisted. And Trump gave U.S. forces in Syria more leeway to engage with Russian troops.
"Those loosened rules of engagement have resulted in direct military clashes with Russian militants and mercenaries on the ground, actually resulting in one incident in hundreds of casualties on the Russian side," Vajdich said.
The administration has also imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials...
And from from 12/26/17 there is
Trump Sends Tank-Killing Missile To Fight Russia in Ukraine, But What Can It Do? By John Haltiwanger On 12/26/17 at 5:53 PM EST The decision to sell the Javelin missiles also comes not long after the Trump administration approved a limited weapons sale between American manufacturers and Ukraine of Model M107A1 sniper systems, ammunition and associated equipment...It's fired from the shoulder and tracks targets via infrared (heat signature). Instead of targeting the front or sides of tanks, which are thick with armor, the missile flies in an arc and hits the top of tank where the armor is weak.. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko defended the move in a Facebook post, thanking President Donald Trump for his support. Poroshenko further described the arms sale as "a transatlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression." - https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tank-killing-missile-fight-russia-ukraine-759745
And as reported by abcnews.go.com om Dec. 23, 2020,
"Previously, as reported by ABC News – Breaking News, Latest News, Headlines & Videos om Dec. 23, 2020, "Trump admin approves new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.." The new package included Javelin anti-tank weapons, 150 missiles and two launchers, which came after a first sale, completed in March 2018, which included 210 Javelin missiles and 37 launch units.. "The Trump administration first approved the sale of Javelins to Ukraine in December 2017 -- a step that former President Barack Obama never took.... ..
And when procurement costs are taken into consideration (how much it cost for training and materials in respective countries relative to what they spend), then despite having far less to defend, the US military budget in 2019 is not larger than the next eleven countries. Rather it is smaller than the next three.
https://www.eurasiareview.com/11102021-debating-defense-budgets-why-military-purchasing-power-parity-matters-analysis/
Well, 10% for the big guy would be bigly! Frigging Democrats.
Note that the part in my above post which says “contrary to you” was not mean to apply to you, as it was from a post of mine on a different thread, which I copied and pasted for its quotes.
A surprising bit of journalism by the NYT. Not written as a hit piece, narrative, or propaganda, but written as a fair representation of the interpreted information that they gathered. Ordinarily I trust the National Enquirer more than the NYT or WP for presentation, but at least they did use resources to gather the information. I would grade this article a C+ because they actually presented information and kept the editorializing to a minimum. Far better than their usual BS.
Probably because the ‘Big Guy’ is getting 10 % ..
Does anyone know what this is about?
A Ukrainian cargo plane carrying 11 tons of weapons, including mortar shells and land mines, crashed in a fireball explosion in northern Greece.
The Antonov An-12 light aircraft, which was transporting the weapons from Serbia to Bangladesh, had eight Ukrainian crew members onboard.
All eight Ukrainian crew members were killed in the fiery crash.
I had to watch as the media pretended Obama was strengthening NATO while he was weakening us, and then I had to watch as the media was pretending Trump was weakening NATO as he was actually doing the things needed to strengthen it.
Trump was preparing us for Russia, now the Russian invasion is forcing the US/Western left into adopting Trump’s buildup and forward posture, and national protective measures.
The whole country ain’t worth $650 billion.
Actually the NYT is rather conservative compared with the likes of the Boston Globe, which is even more Woke than WaPo.
And if the GOP had the WH then the headlines would be how it failed to deal with Covid and how vaccination was a failure.
Now the liberals need Ukraine to distract from low approval ratings and mid-term expectations, and and any failure of Russia to conquer all of Ukrainian will be promoted as a victory,
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