The Biden administration is sending Congress an urgent warning about the need to approve tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kyiv’s effort to defend itself from Russia’s invasion may grind to a halt without it.

The Biden administration on Monday sent Congress an urgent warning about the need to approve tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kyiv’s war effort to defend itself from Russia’s invasion may grind to a halt without it.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders and also released publicly, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned the U.S. will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, saying that would “kneecap” Ukraine on the battlefield.

She added that the U.S. already has run out of money that it has used to prop up Ukraine’s economy, and “if Ukraine’s economy collapses, they will not be able to keep fighting, full stop.”

  • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.worldEnglish
    192·
    11 months ago

    I’ll admit, I had this thought earlier about why do they even need our money? I haven’t heard of them fighting much of anyone since the first week of this. Mostly leveling the entirety of Gaza so that they can take it over. So the US is not only paying for genocide, we’re also paying for a construction project basically.

    Maybe someone who knows can chime in but what is the money for? Is it for more weapons similar to Ukraine? Are we trying to profit off of a genocide?

    • PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      A lot of it isn’t actually money. The US keeps a massive stockpile of weapons and equipment in storage in Isreal. The government hands over the keys to a few trucks and some parts, then writes it off as $X value in military hardware.

      • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        That’s what I was afraid of. It’s one thing to give aid to a genocidal nation, it’s a complete other thing for you to supply them with bombs and ammo and try to make a dollar off of it. It’s all so disgusting.

    • wahming@monyet.ccEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      We aren’t giving them actual cash. Israel is an excuse to fund the local Military Industrial Complex. Money goes to MIC and their lobbyists, weapons go to Israel.

    • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      I haven’t heard of them fighting much of anyone since the first week of this

      Israel has around 2500 total casualties. Most deaths are lumped from the initial attack (around 1200). Approximately 400 soldiers have been killed, the rest are wounded.

    • Pipoca@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Israel has been involved in several wars against multiple other nations - for example, in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, it was invaded by Egypt, Syria, and a coalition that included Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Cuba, Jordan, etc.

      Israel is located at a fairly strategic location. Britain and France used Israel during the Suez crisis to stage an attack against Egypt over control of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is one of the most important global trade routes.

      US support of Israel is a combination of funding American arms dealers and wanting Israel as a strategicly located partner. That’s why we fought proxy wars with the soviet union over it like the Yom Kippur war. The aid is intended not to fight Hamas, but to keep Israel strong against e.g. Iran and other neighbors. They’ve had peace with Egypt for decades, but that might be more because of Israel being strong enough to not be worth attacking.

      I doubt Biden personally supports the Gaza war, but a lot of this stuff is more about realpolitik and strategic concerns than anything else.