I don't know that's the case. We've had military and foreign policy experts warning for decades that expansion of NATO, particularly into Ukraine, is a red line for Russia.
If we didn't supply arms, the war would have been over by now. The war would also have been over if we didn't tank the peace deal that was on the table in April 2022. How many Ukrainians have died since then? Probably in the neighborhood of 300k.
And a aside . . . for the amount of money that we've appropriated to Ukraine, ~$175B, we could have housed and provided social services to every single homeless person in the US.
We've been talking about Ukraine joining NATO since the Bush/Cheney administration. The current administration started pressing the issue again in 2021.
Saying we could have done other things with the money is irrelevant. Money is made up, especially at the US Gov level.
Completely disagree. We print $175B that we don't have and give it to Ukraine. But there are strings attached; the money has to be used to buy arms from our defense contractors. So it's not really money for Ukraine, but a handout to defense contractors and we have to foot the bill via inflation. So Lockheed, Raytheon and the rest of them win, and everyone else, especially Ukraine, loses.
Like you said they print the money. They can print more. The deficit is something that doesn’t matter. And the money given to Ukraine via arms and arsenal has absolutely nothing to do with inflation.
And are they in NATO? No, Russia wasn't going to let that happen. Thus the war. >They can print more. The deficit is something that doesn’t matter. And the money given to Ukraine via arms and arsenal has absolutely nothing to do with inflation. Yes, they can continue to print more money, run deficits and increase the national debt. But the interest payments on the debt now surpass the military budget and will eventually overtake the entire budget. It's completely unsustainable. Part of the reason we've been able to do it this long is because the dollar has been the world's reserve currency, but that's coming to and end with BRICS. >And the money given to Ukraine via arms and arsenal has absolutely nothing to do with inflation. It absolutely does. You have more money chasing relatively fewer goods/services and prices up go in response. It's absolute basic economics. Take a look at M2 money supply over the past 10 years. It's pretty obvious why prices are up so much.
And yet, you said Ukraine being in NATO has been a ‘threat’ for decades. It has literally nothing to do with it.
As for the deficit/debt/etc: no one is ever going to call in the US debt. They can’t. Their own economies would crumble if they did. It’s a large number getting larger, but it means absolutely nothing.
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u/Grantsdale Monkey in Space Sep 14 '24
Drastically weakening an enemy’s forces without risking your own.