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.
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.