Quote (excellence @ Aug 13 2023 11:30am)
our beloved govt demands billions more in aid to ukraine and illegal immigrants but nothing for Americans in Maui. not even paper towels to be thrown around to help clean up. sad!
I hope Hawaii gets the help that it needs.
https://thegeopolitics.com/myths-over-ukraine-military-aid-how-the-lend-lease-works/"Overall aid to Ukraine accounted for less than 5% of the U.S defense budget, which operates differently from the infrastructure and healthcare budgets. During the same period of the passage of the lease, a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was passed along with a $300 billion Climate Change Bill and a major push by the White House to cancel student debt up to $20,000. As the U.S., UK, and Poland have led the forefront of military aid to Ukraine, all three nations will have contract preference for reconstructing the country after the war is over.
It could be argued that there would be no need for American military aid had it not been for US policies post-USSR collapse that disarmed Ukraine. In the Budapest Memorandum, Kyiv was forced to give up the world’s third largest nuclear stockpile by the US, Russia and UK in return for territorial integrity and sovereignty. It was recently revealed that Russia is using the same long range missiles Ukraine gave up to bomb the country, showing a failure of American foreign policy when it comes to appeasement of good faith negotiations with Russia.
The Lend-Lease has not gone to waste, as Russia has suffered over 100,000 military casualties, continues to be pushed back from occupied territories, and the Kremlin faces economic hardship with sanctions finally starting to feel its effects, forcing the country to allocate into a wartime economy that cannot sustain.
The support for Ukraine has also functioned as a deterrence not just in Eastern Europe but also in Southeast Asia. As Japan and Taiwan are the most important strategic allies in the Pacific with mutual defense pacts with Washington, our top geopolitical rival China has reassessed a potential invasion of Taiwan, seeing the rapid response America gave to Ukraine.
Not only will the military aid to Ukraine be eventually paid off but combating our historically second biggest rival without a single U.S troop being killed is an investment into enhanced security"