The Ukraine Shell Game, Part 3
The Ukraine Shell Game, Part 3
Authoritarian President Zelenskyy is in town again to swindle American taxpayers
This week, the President of Ukraine will appear at the White House to con Congress out of its money again, this time more than $60B, after the $113B Congress has already shelled out to the authoritarian regime.1 The total amount already sent to Ukraine since 2022 is over 17 times what we sent to Israel ($6.5 billion) - traditionally the number one recipient of US foreign aid - in the same period.
In typical Washington subterfuge, the bill circling the drain in Congress claims to be for “national security” and has token gimmicks for Israel and the Southern Border. Right after the October 7th attacks, the administration and some in Congress devised an aid package for Israel’s response - it totaled $2B. But politicians can not spare a crisis to enrich themselves and their cronies so the package in this request for Israel has ballooned to $14B. What does Israel need with seven times more than the initial estimate? Did Israel request such aid? Why do they need it, when they have a large budget surplus? Why would we go into debt to fund their defense? Where will all of this money go? No one who knows is saying.
The second gimmick in this monstrosity we can’t afford is an alleged $13.6B for border protection. The southern border of the United States is in crisis, and has been since the Biden administration took office in 2021. The supplemental bill would include for the border (according to the White House fact sheet):
“…the hiring of 1,300 additional border patrol agents, the deployment of 100 new inspection machines that can detect fentanyl at border entry points, an additional 1,000 law enforcement personnel, 1,600 new asylum officers and reimbursements for the DOD for its support along the border in fiscal 2024, among other things.”
While additional border patrol agents is a good step, and this may appear to be a concession to critics of the Biden border policy, there is too much a doubling down of his failed immigration regime. Rather than stopping fake asylum seekers from overwhelming our resources, Biden is hiring more “officers” to process these asylums faster. There are no policy changes attached, so we should expect to see the migrant crisis continue.
Supporters of the Ukraine funding will tell you three things: 1) that Ukraine is diminishing Russia’s military capacity; 2) that failure to fund this 9 year old stalemate for further carnage will embolden Russia and China to attack elsewhere and 3) Russia will attack a NATO country next, meaning America will have to enter the war against them. Let’s go ahead and debunk these spurious claims, one by one.
Ukraine is Diminishing Russia’s Military
The Ukraine/Russia war in Crimea and the Donbas began in 2014, after a coup of the elected Russian-backed President of Ukraine. Russia invaded Crimea soon after and the two countries have been at war since. Russia continues to prosecute this war and launched a large scale invasion in 2022. It is estimated that at least 500,000 have died in the conflict, and there has been a year long stalemate. Russia has shown no signs of wavering, and just increased its military budget.
Considering these facts, a few questions for the diminish Russia crowd:
How do you know Russia’s capacity is diminished?
Considering the US is $34T in debt and adding $2T each year, does the US have capacity to fight this war in perpetuity?
Is half a million dead a fair cost to allegedly diminish Russia’s capacity?
Considering Russia is the second strongest nuclear power, do you believe that once their capacity to wage conventional war is destroyed, and when they will be left with only the nuclear option to defend themselves, that the world will be more or less safe?
Failure to Fund The Nine Year Old Stalemate in Ukraine Will Embolden China and Russia
This is the Domino Theory that dominated Cold War thinking in the 1950s through 1970s. It was an unmitigated disaster that brought us the tragic wars in Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, Cuba (Bay of Pigs) and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The theory was completely debunked; even its author and main proponent Robert McNamara definitively dismissed it before his death.
The best policy to confront China concerning Taiwan or Russia concerning NATO countries is direct communication and action. Funding an unwinnable war in which half a million have already died to “send a message” to China is an abomination. morally speaking. I really don’t know how a politician or military bearueacrat can say such a thing and sleep at night. There is a lot of money in it, though.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, not an official ally of the United States, and for centuries has been a satellite of Russia. If Europe believes that Ukraine winning this war is an existential threat to Europe, let them say so, fund and fight this war. No American involvement is necessary because no American benefits.
Russia Will Attack NATO Countries Next And Americans Will Have to Fight and Die
This latest came from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a career Military Industrial Complex creature, having served on the board of two major defense contractors and forced to receive a waiver from Congress to “serve” because of his much too-close contractor ties.
His latest controversy involved telling Congress in a briefing last week that unless they pass this latest round of funding, he will be sending US troops to fight Russia in Europe. This sort of heavy-handed extortion - pay or grab a rifle, grunt - to enrich your friends at Raytheon, Nucor and elsewhere is plainly disgusting. There is no honor in it.
Additionally, this argument defies logic. The reasons Putin has attacked Ukraine (while not justified in western sensibility) are rational and known. One of them is that Ukraine is specifically NOT in NATO and Russia seeks to keep it that way. Putin understands the nature of NATO and has therefore never attacked a NATO country in his quest to end US/NATO encroachment on his border. As I’ve written before, Washington hopes you are dull and can’t remember.
Please don’t be fooled by these charlatans pretending to play chess. They are not experts, have not been vindicated in any significant way about any major foreign or defense policy enacted, and have no idea what Putin’s next moves are. They use their position to convince you they have some moral authority but they are bankrupt. They seek only to demonize adversaries in the US public eye to ensure they get to keep prosecuting their endless wars and keep the military industrial complex profits flowing to DC elites. They care little for anything else.
The Freedom House ranked Ukraine as a “Nation in Transition,” in 2022, assigning a democracy score of 39/100. The current President suspended elections, nationalized TV news and restricts opposition parties.