Posted on 12/04/2023 4:08:32 PM PST by Kazan
“The war in Ukraine might be deadly but at least it’s good for Boeing!” That’s the latest message coming from advocates for unending foreign aid to Ukraine as the war with Russia drags on into its third year.
The horrifying conflict, with too many scenes like the one below, could have ended more than a year and a half ago. Instead, Western leaders prolonged the conflict over stubborn demands to keep Ukrainian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the table, and, apparently, justify spending billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich the military-industrial complex.
On Friday, the Washington Post awarded Republican columnist Marc Thiessen a full page to expand upon the war’s explosive profits for the defense industry. Now we know under what circumstances the Washington Post is willing to award an entire page to a Republican.
“Here is the best-kept secret about U.S. military aid to Ukraine: Most of the money is being spent here in the United States,” Thiessen wrote. “That’s right: Funds that lawmakers approve to arm Ukraine are not going directly to Ukraine but are being used stateside to build new weapons or to replace weapons sent to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles.”
Thiessen goes on to admonish conservative lawmakers who’ve led the resistance against rubber-stamping unlimited aid to Ukraine.
“At a time when both major parties are competing to win working-class votes and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base, our military aid to Ukraine does exactly that — it is providing a major cash infusion into factories across the country that directly benefits American workers,” wrote Thiessen. “In other words, as happens with foreign military aid, our aid to Ukraine is not only creating American jobs but also reinvigorating our dangerously atrophied defense industrial base.”
It’s a full-page ad for a memo broadcast by Ukraine’s top ally in the upper chamber two months ago.
“If you look at the Ukraine assistance,” GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CBS, “a significant portion of what’s being spent in the United States and 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we send to Ukraine with more modern weapons, so we’re rebuilding our industrial base.”
A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals an overwhelming majority of Ukraine aid is going, and remaining, overseas. Just a fraction of the $113 billion already spent has gone to “rebuilding our industrial base.”
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, about $67 billion of the $113 billion in Ukrainian aid went to defense. Of that $67 billion, about $27 billion went to “drawdown replenishment,” and $15 billion went to the U.S. military. Another $18 billion went to the “Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative,” nearly $5 billion went to the foreign military financing program, and $2 billion went to “other defense.”
Richard Stern, the director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, broke down what these numbers mean in an interview with The Federalist.
“All of the money that’s not military support,” Stern said, “is just aid we gave them. A lot of that is just cash, and so none of that directly comes back to the U.S. in any kind of real life.”
Of the military spending, Stern added, “None of it is money. All of its equipment. A lot of it is equipment that had already been produced, so that’s not supporting U.S. defense industries.”
So, who, exactly, is the war supporting in terms of its economic impact? It’s certainly not the average taxpayer. An analysis from the Heritage Foundation in August found the total aid to Ukraine cost taxpayers $900 per household. The major defense firms that make up the military-industrial complex, on the other hand, are polishing off their blood diamonds. America’s Big Five weapons manufacturers — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing, and General Dynamics — raked in more than $196 billion last year, according to the independent think tank Responsible Statecraft, with profits driven by Kyiv.
Ukraine, meanwhile, isn’t winning. In fact, the war-torn nation is now digging in for a turbulent winter and a long, drawn-out conflict.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the construction of an extensive network of fortifications aimed at holding back Russian forces, signaling a switch to the defensive posture after a monthslong Ukrainian counteroffensive yielded only small gains,” the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
More will die, but at least Lockheed Martin is making some money.
WHERE were these “journalists” raised>??
IN A CAVE BY BEARS & COYOTES???
does anyone think that just because your birth certificate says you’re American that your life has any value to these MIC monsters?
These neoCON MIC bloodthirsty warmongers are going to have to answer for their crimes when they’re standing before the Lord.
If we are going to be able to fight Communist China, then we need manufacturing, and 22 months ago our weapons and ammo manufacturing had gone dormant and had largely shut down and closed.
This Russian invasion really woke up the West and our Pacific allies, new factories are being built, and old and outdated stocks are being sent to Ukraine where they are used to destroy and use up the Russian military machinery, while we refill our warehouses with new stock and updated and modernized versions of what they are replacing.
Same old WW1 trope. So old it has moss growing on it.
Ukraine’s top ally in the US govt, GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell told CBS two months ago:
<><> “a significant portion of US billions in US foreign aid to Ukraine is US spent
<><>tax dollars are being spent in the United States and 38 different states,
<><>b/c we are replacing weapons we send to Ukraine with more modern weapons,
<><>ergo, we’re rebuilding our industrial base.”
REALITY CHECK-—A closer look at the numbers reveals
<><> an overwhelming majority of Ukraine foreign aid is going overseas
<><> and that US aid remains overseas.
<><>of the $113 billion US tax dollars already spent
<><>only a fraction has gone to “rebuilding our industrial base.”
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
<><>of the $113 billion tax dollars sent, $67 billion went to “military defense”
<><>Of that $67 billion, about $27 billion went to “drawdown replenishment,”
<><>meaning a skimpy $15 billion went to US military mfg.
<><>still another $18 billion tax dollars went to the “Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative,”
<><>nearly $5 billion more tax dollars went to other foreign military financing programs,
<><>plus another $2 billion tax dollars went to “other defense.”
Richard Stern budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, broke down the numbers for The Federalist:
<><>the tax dollar billions we send Ukraine are not labeled “military support,”
<><>the billions are simply foreign aid money,
<><>this is cash US aid that Ukraine can do whatever it wants with
<><>none of that aid or cash has ever come back to the US in any way.”
Worse, we've depleted our ammo and weapon stocks and pushed Russia into a dangerous alliance with China. If we ended up in a world war, we'd get our asses kicked, especially given the state of our woke military.
Yet, here you are doubling down on the false narrative and Biden's failed policies.
The US has been the armorer to the world since The Great War.
In WWII, the US manufactured more war materiel than the rest of the world put together (much to the relief of the British, who couldn't seem to break the habit of picking fights they couldn't finish).
I guess your nastiness and name calling is to make up for the fact that you know next to nothing about this.
“If we are going to be able to fight Communist China, ...”
The USA will have to up its STEM graduates per year by a factor of eight, its steel production by 10 times , its Navy shipyard capacity by 200 times , and its civilian shipyard capacity by 1000 times.
And it is going to have to get their defence contractors to figure out how to build their weapons without chinese parts.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/19/raytheon-china-greg-hayes-decoupling/
This is delusional, and USA NeoCon fools are going to drag the rest of the West into a certain loser war along with them.
Our only hope is that the DC Globohomo Regime collapses before that war starts.
“In WWII, the US manufactured more war materiel than the rest of the world put together... “
In 1940’s the Brooklyn Dodgers were a threat to win the World Series.
That team has long since disappeared, and so has the USA industrial base that manufactured for WW2.
You sure hate America, your signup here was mostly to bash the Americans.
Wapo: Yeah war is a racket, but that’s a good thing.
A lot has changed, even in the last 30 years.
Thirty years ago the USA was the undisputed Global Hegemony atop a Unipolar world.
Now it is a de-industrialed mess, with 10K per day illegals crossing its own borders, while it attempts to spread a toxic Globohomo ideology to every unwilling nation on earth.
In addition many of the USA leadership is delusional about decline so they still think a server farm with nukes is some sort of global military champion.
And those of us in allied countries also get dragged into this and lose.
America is the leader of the West. Unfortunately the USA elites are insane, delusional and incompetent, and are a threat to their own population as well as every country on earth.
“Here is the best-kept secret about U.S. military aid to Ukraine: Most of the money is being spent here in the United States,” Thiessen wrote. “That’s right: Funds that lawmakers approve to arm Ukraine are not going directly to Ukraine but are being used stateside to build new weapons or to replace weapons sent to Kyiv from U.S. stockpiles.”
Thiessen goes on to admonish conservative lawmakers who’ve led the resistance against rubber-stamping unlimited aid to Ukraine.
__________________________________________________
It’s not a “best-kept-secret”. We know that a big chunk of the money (that isn’t being laundered) is ultimately going to military-weapons manufacturers in the US. The Post (and Thiessen) should stop pretending to be smart.
This is cash US aid that Ukraine can do whatever it wants with
No wonder Biden’s checks note states loan repayment
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