Paul @NYT pulls no punches:
MAGA cheerleaders, brownshirt billionaire Elon and his creepy cohorts, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Russel Brand, Andrew Tate, Rand Paul, Ian Miles Cheong, Donald Trump Jr., J.D. Vance, Scott Ridder, Jeffrey Sachs, David Sachs, Jordan Peterson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Ben Shapiro, et al, want Ukraine to lose. It’s that simple1.
Tom over @theatlantic says many MAGA wackos despise Ukraine because Trump was impeached for trying to blackmail the country2.
And, finally, Andreas @bloomberg exposes the failure of imagination and false dichotomies used by the anti-Ukraine funding crowd3.
Why the GOP Extremists Oppose Ukraine. The budget fight was about vice signaling, not spending (The Atlantic, October 2, 2023)
We All Need to Keep Supporting Ukraine, Elon. False dichotomies and general weariness are undermining American backing of Kyiv. Time to remember what’s at stake (Bloomberg, October 2, 2023)
Thanks for this article.
I read PK’s column today, and I’m not sure I completely agree with him, as he is stepping well outside of his area of expertise.
Only $77 billion? As I understand it, the ‘value’ of US military assistance to Ukraine is more or less whatever the Pentagon says it is. If the Pentagon’s accountants value a Bradley at replacement cost, depreciated cost, or scrap metal cost is very much a discretionary matter, and in practice seems to depend on how much Presidential drawdown remains at any particular time.
But that to one side, the principal issue isn’t really whether the budget can handle the additional monetary costs, which clearly it can, but rather that in terms of matériel, the cupboard, sadly, is bare, and further gifts, loans, guarantees and donations will have an increasingly negative impact on the national security of the United States.