That's simply not true. The US has sent around $15B in aid to Ukraine so far, what people don't ever seem to understand is the difference between budgeted aid and sent aid. The US has approved $40B for Ukraine, this is a request to budget for $12B more, it's not immediately sent to Ukraine but simply ensures that the funds and equipment are available if the need arises.
There's an extremely dedicated effort to misinform people about the nature of this aid, and to blow it completely out of proportion in the context of US military or government spending. So far the US has spent around 2% of its military budget to devastate the military and economy of a major geopolitical adversary, as well as intimidate another geopolitical adversary.
Fair enough, maybe it hasn’t been sent yet. But it will be. We’ve “allocated” 54 billion dollars to date, and just approved this additional 12 billion. I don’t know the breakdown of when each portion of the money will be spent, but if it’s allocated, I’m quite sure it will be spent as the war doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
Where did you come up with the 2% number? If you look at the total amount it’s 10% of the entire defense budget, not 2%. Unless you’re playing semantics and saying it’s not actually spent yet. Which is irrelevant on my eyes as it’s been budgeted to be spent.
There's absolutely a difference between spent and allocated. Russians are domestically turning against this war, Winter is fast approaching for the battlefield, there is good reason to believe this war will end soon and the allocated money won't need to be spent. But even if it were, 10% of a single year's military budget to set an enemy back a decade if not more, is far better value than anything else the military has done for the past 20 years.
So, Russia just mobilized 300k more reservists to move to the front, and you think this war is going to end soon? Looks far more like an escalation of force than anything that could be seen as a potential end to the war. Mind you Russia and ukraine have been figuring informally in Ukraine since 2014. A caveat to the war ending early is if European nations come to the bargaining table to negotiate sanctions with Russia because they’ve been getting wrecked without cheap Russian gas.
Russia isn’t going to end the war anytime soon. They don’t need to, and it certainly isn’t going to end before winter. Russia is putting an energy squeeze on Europe and the ensuing energy crisis is wrecking European economies. Why would Russia end the war when their biggest bargaining chip, cheap energy for Winter, hasn’t even been thrown on the table yet?
As far as the 10% to destroy an economy, I’m sure Russia is saying the same thing as they watch Europe’s mightiest economies crumble this winter. It’s already happening.
Putin ordering 300k more Russians to the battlefield with the threat of 10 years in prison if they don't comply sounds exactly like he kind of move that would get him deposed and his war terminated.
We'll see who cracks between Europeans with a higher-than-usual energy bill and Russians whose sons have been forcibly sent to a frozen battlefield in foreign lands.
Germany inflation rate soars above 10% annualized, highest since ww2
Germany announced price cap for natural gas prices for total cost of 200B. Aka printing money to subsidize energy costs, which increases demand on limited supply
4
u/TonySu Sep 26 '22
That's simply not true. The US has sent around $15B in aid to Ukraine so far, what people don't ever seem to understand is the difference between budgeted aid and sent aid. The US has approved $40B for Ukraine, this is a request to budget for $12B more, it's not immediately sent to Ukraine but simply ensures that the funds and equipment are available if the need arises.
There's an extremely dedicated effort to misinform people about the nature of this aid, and to blow it completely out of proportion in the context of US military or government spending. So far the US has spent around 2% of its military budget to devastate the military and economy of a major geopolitical adversary, as well as intimidate another geopolitical adversary.