by Pedro Gonzalez at IM 1776
With breathtaking speed and brain-killing narratives about a “feel good” crusade against the forces of darkness, Americans have found themselves in yet another confusing and expensive quagmire with no end in sight.
Already U.S. involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian War appears to be a repeat of yesterday’s “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, with their incalculable human toll and estimated $6.5 trillion financial price tag by 2050 – and that’s just the interest payments – according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. And just like Iraq and Afghanistan, the money Americans are supplying Ukraine is subject to waste, fraud, and abuse. Indeed, a documentary by CBS News quoted an assessment by Jonas Ohman, the founder of Blue-Yellow, a nonprofit that provides Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers with non-lethal supplies, that only 30 percent of aid was reaching the front lines in April.
We know plenty of aid is going to waste, but we don’t really know how much we have already or will yet commit. However, some estimates can be made.
On May 20, The New York Times reported that the total commitment by the U.S. to Kiev since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 had reached $54 billion. “The scale is unprecedented and speaks — in terms of the U.S. perspective — to the earthquake presented by the current circumstances in Europe,” said Elias Yousif, an analyst at the Stimson Center.
But since then, there have been a series of announcements about disbursements and pledges of additional aid by the U.S. government. Below is a short list of funding statements from the Department of Defense and U.S. Agency for International Development:…
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