1) So far Europe has committed eu144 billion to Ukraine. (This figure may be slightly low / dated, as the figure the Ukraine Support Tracker gives for the US is also slightly low.) US commitments of aid as of 2/23/2024 actually amount to $74.3 billion (eu$68.7 billion).
2) Protection of US borders is not so much a matter of resources or money, it is a matter of POLICY. It doesn’t matter what Congress passes until we get a hardnose on immigration like like Trump as Pres., best with a Congress that will back him up. Whatever passes pre-2025, if Biden doesn’t like it he will subvert it. There’s no chance of convicting him if impeached, and even if convicted, then we have...
This makes the whole issue of “the border 1st”, at least time-wise, a bunch of grandstanding nonsense.
3) The majority of the weapons money for Ukraine goes to replenish US stocks with newer and often better weapons and munitions. (Some items are direct replacements, like new Excalibur shells for older ones.)
4) “Common sense” would tell you that ANY time gov’t money is handed out, at least 10% goes to waste and corruption. Usually the waste part is a lot worse than that. Now, rather than condemning all Ukies to Russian rule or worse, I’d say randomly select Ukie soldiers too badly wounded to return to fighting, and give them the resources to hunt down miscreants, who can then be turned over to squads of randomly selected Ukie soldiers that get rotated out of the front lines.
Another approach would be to simply supply only weapons, mostly larger systems very unlikely to leave Ukraine (and easily tracked), training, etc., and perhaps in this next go-round ~$2 billion in actual humanitarian supplies and materials. No money - we leave that to the Euros.
Note that old weapons that get replaced by newer weapons is by far the biggest chunk of support the US has sent to Ukraine.
No, my FRiend, that's a reach, and a nonsensical one at that.
Looking for some common ground here, however.
1. I'd like to see the source for your figures, if you don't mind. That said, Europe is a lot of countries, their figures should be much, much higher than ours.
2. Absolutely, and policy-wise, not a farthing until our policy supports our borders 100%. Then we can talk about Ukraine.
3. Need a source, as I've read items that report the contrary. I do suspect that our military strength might be diminished do to Ukraine support. Show me where that's an error.
4. Common sense tells me that your ten percent figure is generous and I excuse none of it. But hey, how about the comprehensive audit? Let's learn and verify before we send another farthing.