Some of our leaders seem to care more about other countries, e.g., Ukraine and Israel, than they do about our own.
Once again, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has come to Washington, begging for even more money, this time some $8 billion dollars.
The U.S. Congress has already approved $175 billion for Ukraine in the last 2½ years. Added to over $52 billion from the European Union and $43 billion from the World Bank (17.5% of which comes from U.S. taxpayers), Ukraine has had more money to fight this war than Russia has.
The Kiel Institute said in mid-January Ukraine had at that point received from all sources what it described as a “staggering” $278 billion.
Ukraine’s total GDP in 2022 was only $160.5 billion. That whole country could have been rebuilt in a beautiful way with all the money it has spent on this war.
Now, much of Ukraine has been shelled and bombed to smithereens all because many leaders from Britain and the U.S. urged Ukraine not to go through with a peace agreement in the spring of 2022.
That agreement would have saved thousands of lives on both sides and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Four big U.S. defense contractors threw a lavish party at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in December 2022 in celebration of all the money they would be receiving as long as all the members of Congress (to whom they contribute) could keep this war going.
One publication headlined its story as “This DC party invite shows all the money to be made off the Ukraine War.” As General Smedley Butler said many years ago: “War is a racket.”
Our encouragement of this war broke what Secretary of State James Baker called an “ironclad” promise to Russia in 2012 that we would not seek to expand NATO further east, meaning through Ukraine to the Russian border.
On September 25, the U.S. announced another $375 million aid package for Ukraine from defense discretionary funds as President Biden pledged “unwavering support.” Vice President Harris, trying to appear tough, attacked Trump on Ukraine, saying his position amounts to “surrender.”
As for Israel, the 58 standing ovations Netanyahu received in Congress in July showed that the country will continue to receive many billions no matter what it does.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel has received at least $310 billion in economic and military assistance from U.S. taxpayers since its founding in 1948, making it the largest recipient – by far – of our foreign aid.
In addition, Egypt, Jordan, and some other countries in the Middle East have received many billions from the U.S., really as bribes so they would not team up with Iran in a coalition against Israel.
One major example of our aid is the U.S.-funded “Iron Dome” which has been almost totally effective against the rockets being shot at Israel from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and other places.
This Dome is why, fortunately, very few Israelis have been killed by these weapons of war, while, unfortunately, many thousands of Palestinians, and now Lebanese, have been and are being killed by Israel’s bombs.
Most of the victims of these Israeli and U.S.-financed bombs have been women and children. If so many thousands of little children were being killed by these bombing raids in any other country, there would have been such a rush by members of Congress to condemn it that it would have been hard to get out of the way of the stampede.
However, all members of Congress know they can criticize any other country – even our own – but not Israel. Sadly, re-election comes before country to most members of Congress, so they know they have to jump at Israel’s beck and call.
Despite all the billions we have sent Israel over the years and despite always voting with them against the rest of the world in the U.N., Netanyahu has totally ignored our pleas for a ceasefire. He controls our foreign policy in the Middle East.
Our president, secretary of state and other leaders have been made to look very weak, even ridiculous, when we demand a ceasefire and yet at the same time keep sending Israel many billions more in military weapons and equipment.
Possibly the most ridiculous thing of all is that with a national debt of over $35 trillion, we are spending money we do not have to support wars by both Ukraine and Israel that are very harmful to our own national interests.
Our one-sided attachment to and for Israel has caused much resentment for the U.S. around the world and especially in the Middle East. There will never be peace there unless the U.S. becomes a neutral mediator and Israel is forced to make peace with its neighbors.
And our wasteful spending in Ukraine is doing much more harm than good. These wars are not about any serious threat to us. They have simply been and still are all about the money.
Reprinted with author’s permission from the Knoxville Focus.
John James Duncan Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 2nd congressional district from 1988 to 2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party.
