And BTW, I favor aiding Ukraine.
that sounds all nice and noble, but providing them aid to what end and to what extent? how many more billions in handouts should the US taxpayer just give out? Congress has appropriated $180+ billion in aid to Ukraine since the start of the war- and surprise surprise (JK, not surprising at all) Congress has blocked any and all attempts to establish even the slightest hint of oversight of aid to Ukraine by blocking audits and blocking the appointment of a lead inspector general to oversee US aid to Ukraine.
Firstly the American public had been sold a bill of goods that all of this aid would be paid back- well now Zelensky is saying all this aid were grants not loans- and Ukraine doesn't owe the US a dollar. Go figure.
Secondly, putting aside the money issue for a moment, the
much bigger issue at hand is the massive loss of life, the destruction of the country of Ukraine, and the very real threat of this exploding into a much bigger war- perhaps even WWIII. The killing and the suffering needs to end. Period. The real death toll in Ukraine is
far higher than what the phony numbers the government in Kyiv is reporting (40,000 dead my ass).
Since the start of the war in 2022 the population of the country has dropped by around a quarter. That's A LOT. Millions upon millions have fled the country. The real number dead or seriously wounded is probably closer to a million. They've lost around 20% of the eastern part of the country- look at the maps- they haven't moved since the start of the war. Huge swaths of the countries housing supply & public infrastructure has been severely damaged or destroyed.
The reality is that they are in the middle of a shit sandwich and they have no viable way to win this war. They are out-manned and out-gunned. Russia simply put has millions upon millions more people to throw in the meat grinder. Russia's economy is on a war footing and their manufacturing/industrial capacity is pumping out more artillery/munitions/weapons in a year than the entirety of NATO combined can at the moment. Ukraine flat out cannot win this war as it stands- no matter how much money we throw at them. It is flat out an impossibility. The end stage is near, and it only gets worse for them from here. The only conceivable way they could win this war is if the United States got directly involved with boots on the ground, put up no fly zones, engaged fighters/bombers/drone strikes. Which means: WWIII and nuclear exchange. US simply put- isn't going to do that. There is no world where this happens.
The Eurotrash and the dumb ass useless Canadians can talk a big game all they want- but the reality is those useless morons can't do jackshit to turn the tide of this war. Their militaries are a complete joke, they don't have the industrial capacity to produce the necessary weapons, they are NEVER going to slash their welfare states to spend on defense in any meaningful way like the US does, and they actually help fund the Russian war machine by continually buying Russian oil & gas because they have no other choice. EU countries gave 18 billion Euros in aid to Ukraine last year- bought 22 billion Euros of Russian oil & gas- and now Germany is pushing to ease restrictions and sanctions so they can buy even more oil & gas from Russia. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer just talked a big game- saying he's all for putting British boots on the ground in Ukraine- but only if it has American backing and air support. Uh yeah, UK...y'all aren't getting that from the US- which means there will be no boots on the ground. And if UK or France for example sent troops into Ukraine and Russia slaughters their troops inside Ukraine- well there is no Article 5 security guarantee that could be invoked- as Article 5 only kicks in when there is a direct attack inside the borders of a NATO country.
I favor ending the war and aiding them economically by helping them hold onto as much territory as they possibly can and to rebuild their country. And it would be ideal if JP Morgan Chase and BlackRock were not the companies that profit from Ukraine's reconstruction- rather local Ukrainian banks and corporations that reap any profit of reconstruction. And Russia should pay for the bulk of the reconstruction, as should the United States- as it was Russia that invaded the country and it was the meddling and foreign policy of the second Bush I, second Obama, first Trump, and Biden administrations which helped egg this entire fucking shit show of a disaster upon the world.
