Putting Biden’s new whopping $33B Ukraine package into context
His proposal ‘would make Kyiv the largest yearly
recipient of U.S. military aid of at least the past two decades.’
APRIL 28, 2022
Written by
Ben
Freeman and William Hartung
Today the
Biden administration requested a
whopping $33 billion aid package for Ukraine. This is on top of a $14 billion
Ukraine aid package enacted last month.
While Russian
aggression in Ukraine has been appalling in its violence, this is nonetheless a
historically large aid package that is worth putting into context.
For starters,
if Congress signs off on this new request the U.S. will have authorized $47
billion in total spending to Ukraine. That’s more than the Biden administration
is committing to stopping climate change and
almost as much as the entire State Department budget.
The vast
majority of this new aid package, $20.4 billion, is for “additional security
and military assistance for Ukraine and for U.S. efforts to strengthen European
security in cooperation with our NATO allies and other partners in the region,”
according to the White House.
“Coupled with
the $3.7 billion in military assistance already made available to Ukraine since
Russia‘s invasion, President Biden’s proposal of an additional $20 billion
would make Kyiv the largest yearly recipient of U.S. military aid of at least
the past two decades,” explained Elias Yousif, a security assistance expert at
the Stimson Center.
“The amount
is more than twice the largest yearly total ever provided to Afghanistan —
where the U.S. was actively at war — and approximately seven times Israel’s
annual military assistance package,” continued Yousif.
This aid
package is also more than the U.S. spent on the so-called Overseas Contingency
Operations (OCO) account during
the first year of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan, and more than the total amount
of money all but 13 countries in the world spend on their military, according
to data from the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute.
In addition
to Ukrainian fighters, one of the primary beneficiaries of this aid package
will be Pentagon contractors, whose CEO’s have explained how
the Ukraine conflict is good for business and have seen their stock
prices soar since
the war began. According to Taylor Giorno of OpenSecrets,
the top five defense contractors spent more than $16 million on lobbying in the
first quarter of 2022 alone, and their CEOs met directly with Pentagon
leadership earlier this month to discuss Ukraine security assistance.
While
Ukrainian fighters will benefit from these arms it’s vitally important for the
U.S. to consider the risks of these arms transfers as well, not the least of
which is the potential for getting the U.S. into a direct military
confrontation with Russia. As Seth G. Jones of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies told the
New York Times, “the risk of a widening war is serious right now .
. . Russian casualties are continuing to mount, and the U.S. is committed to
shipping more powerful weapons that are causing those casualties.”
There is also
the possibility that U.S. arms will fall into the hands of U.S.
adversaries, as they have in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Syria, and elsewhere.
In addition,
there is the direct economic cost to U.S. taxpayers who, ultimately, have to
foot the bill for this historic aid package. Part of that cost could come from
the kinds of fraud, waste, and abuse that groups like the Special Inspector
General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) have uncovered in other cases where
billions of dollars were being shoveled out the door in the name of national
security without adequate oversight or coordination.
Helping
Ukraine defend itself is one thing, but it should be done with an eye toward
limiting the risks of escalation and unintended economic and security
consequences. The administration’s latest aid request should be carefully
debated and scrutinized before it is allowed to sail through in its current
form.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario