Funding Failing Forever-Wars

And possibly stealing more foreign central bank assets; a recipe for ...

Apr 18, 2024

Published: 2024-04-18

Voila!

Sometimes a single news article is so indicative of an understanding that one feels: "Voila!" It confirms the US as a failing empire feeding its Military Industrail Complex (MIC), probably to its own detriment. The revealing article is "Speaker Johnson Unveils $95 Billion Foreign Military Aid Bills" by Dave DeCamp from Antiwar.

The article's opening statement confirms a suggestion made during discussion on recent Judging Freedom shows, that the forever war funding bills would be split by war:

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) unveiled three foreign military aid bills for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, totaling over $95 billion in spending.

It is pleasing that the funding proposals are offered individually. This will allow the electorate to see who votes for which, and thus reveal differences in which military projects or wars are being supported by which members of Congress. Perhaps citizens will ask "what else could be done with the money which will be added to the national debt other than fund the MIC (and kill people)?"

Ukraine

Two recent comments by Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski and Prof. Sachs reveal immorality behind the $61 billion "aid" bill for Ukraine.

Precluding nuclear weapons, even if US and NATO troops were involved, this war was likely to be a loss. Historically, invading Russia is a losing proposition. Fighting Russia on its border is no different. The "no NATO troops" limitation was issued from the outset. The purpose of the war, to "weaken Russia", was declared early by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. With this understanding the conflict became a losing proxy war, a war "to the last Ukrainian".

Kwiatkowski's recent presentation to the UN Security Council extended the analysis which Brian Berletic has been offering for years. The collection of weaponry which Ukraine has been supplied by NATO began old and of mixed origin, though in large volume. It then became new, in smaller amounts. The combinations that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) was fighting with were either unfamiliar to them and old (old NATO equipment) or just old (old Warsaw Pact equipment). It then became unfamiliar again, in smaller amounts, with the new NATO equipment. None of it would "talk" to the other. It was impossible to integrate.

Aside from corruption in Ukraine limiting the volume of equipment reaching the front, this minimally functional mixed equipment is the "aid" which US and its NATO allies were providing the AFU. It was designed to lose a war which was never intended to be won but would hopefully topple Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin while Ukrainians were being killed.

Prof. Sachs' observation confirms analysis which has been issued in independent media by military experts, again for over a year. Ukraine has lost. Continuing to fund the war is not just "throwing good money after bad". It is "paying to throw Ukrainian soldiers in a grave".

Ukrainian forces are surrendering in considerable numbers. Col. Macgregor's recent comments on this are supported by reports, especially from the battle around Chasiv Yar. Sections of Ukrainian brigades are beginning to understand, as Matt Hoh noted, that surrender is the intelligent option. Russia has treated its prisoners of war well from the outset. This humane behaviour is now becoming a military asset.

It appears that the ultra-nationalist forces, previously privileged with being able to fight in the "rear", are being forced by new Ukrainian commander Syrskyi to move to the front lines. They are refusing. This contributes to a loss of morale, or perhaps a loss of enforcement. Large sections of other brigades are surrendering. These probably weary units with little artillery support and no air cover are being enveloped by well supported, fresh Russian units. The Ukrainian units are sensibly surrendering.

Israel

On the Israeli front, similar behaviour to the early phase of the conflict with Russia in Ukraine has occurred. After the October 7th, 2023, attack by Hamas and the engagement of Hezbollah with Israel's military in the Golan Heights in the weeks following, an exodus from Israel began.

Iran's recent response to Israel's destruction of their consulate building at their embassy in Damascus was careful. By selecting only Israeli military targets used in that attack, the response was proportionate and allowed Iran to act under UN Charter Article 51. The US was notified via intermediate nations of the targets days in advance. This ensured Israel was also notified and could take whatever precautionary measures it chose. On the day itself, the attack plan began with slow flying drones, and an announcement on official Iranian media. Hours of additional notification were provided. Unlike the illegal Israeli attack which deliberately killed diplomatic staff by surprise, the Iranian response on military facilities was legal and carefully, repeatedly announced.

As the three classes of aerial Iranian munitions converged on their targets defenses against them were employed by Jordanian, US, French, British and Israeli systems. Cheap drones were shot down with expensive missiles. Old cruise missiles were destroyed with even more expensive interceptors. Ballistic and hypersonic missiles were attacked with expensive missiles to partial effect. The use of Israeli radar and missile defense lanchers illuminated them to Iranian surveillance providing Iran and its allies with a map of Israel's defenses. The surviving Iranian missiles hit their targets as intended.

The one injury was to a poor seven year old Bedouin girl who was struck by missile parts, the falling debris of an interception.

Iran can penetrate Israel's missile defenses at will. A tiny fraction of their arsenal, much of it old, was used. The Israeli defence cost around $1 billion. The munitions used penetrated Israel’s defenses, and those of four additional nations, to strike sensitive strategic targets. Iran can do this again, and again, whenever provoked. Iran can do this to anything in range. The only defence is partial and extremely expensive. This is the new reality.

Restocking Israel's missile defenses would be a prudent choice for its allies if it was not running a genocide against the Palestinian people it lives beside. The US Congress' bill to "aid" Israel is trapped in a vice of seeking to aid an ally which is committing a supreme crime.

Dave DeCamp again expresses this as clearly as is possible:

The Israel bill totals $26 billion, the majority of which will go toward supporting the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and replenishing air defenses following Iran’s reprisal attack.

What Israel needs is strong and calm advice, and deft diplomacy, skills sorely lacking in the current US executive.

Taiwan

The third "aid" bill appears to prepare for a war with China. Again, Dave DeCamp is as clear as daylight:

Over $8 billion will go toward spending in the Asia Pacific to prepare for a future war with China, including a few billion in military aid for Taiwan.

This future war is as doomed as the other two.

The conflict with Russia was meant to weaken Russia, which was meant to weaken China. The opposite is the result. With NATO backing, Ukraine took on Russia with a 1:4 population ratio. Russia now outproduces all of NATO in military manufacturing. The US cannot take on China, again with a 1:4 population ratio, when China is the manufacturing center of the world and has Russia's support. The war is lost before it begins. Thus, this is not the purpose.

The US' problem with China is the same problem it has with all other non-compliant nations. They are acting independently. The US' unipolar moment, the period of its hegemony, passed a few years back. The international response outside of NATO for the US' call to arms and sanctions against Russia, for the proxy war in Ukraine, was 'no'. This brought the change in geopolitical reality, the loss of power of the hegemon, into stark relief.

The Taiwan "aid" bill is government funding for the US Military Industrial Congress. It clearly displays the relationship between the MIC and Congress. Whether this serves the US' national interests or not is for US citizens to consider.

The Rules Based International Order

DeCamp concludes his article for Antiwar by stating that:

Johnson will release a fourth bill for so-called “national security” purposes. ... It is also expected to give the federal government the power to sell off frozen Russian assets to make more money available for Ukraine, which would amount to outright theft.

This proposed theft of other nations' central bank assets is a continuation after those from Venezuela and Afghanistan by the UK and US, respectively. This behaviour further weakens the US, driving nations away from its untrustworthy orbit.

It is, perhaps, a signature of a failing empire.

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Sources

Speaker Johnson Unveils $95 Billion Foreign Military Aid Bills, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-04-17

There Is No Grudge That Cannot Be Resolved, China's Xi Jinping Tells Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou in Momentous Beijing Meeting, Diego Ramos, ScheerPost, 2024-04-10

Military Aid, an Ubiquitous Euphemism, YesXorNo, 2023-09-16

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski： What I Told the UN Last Week., Napolitano interviews Kwiatkowski, Judging Freedom, 2024-04-16