this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (21 children)

While I'm openly in favor of supporting Ukraine, it's important to note that the vast majority of this type of military aid is provided in kind.

So really, it's a proposal to give US Defense contractors $100b+ to replenish and restock the DOD with new kit and munitions for the old kit and munitions that we're providing to Ukraine. Which then get into the use accounting tricks e.g. depreciation values, etc.

The annual military aid to Israel is a little different, it's more like a loss leader coupon: give Israel money that they have to spend with US Defense contractors, which then also incentivizes them spending their own budget on complementary systems that can be integrated with those systems, munitions, support contracts, etc.

Although in this case, I believe it's primarily munitions and other kit that the DOD already has in warehouses.

This is oversimplified, but I just see these headline figures always being confused for pallets of cash.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (5 children)

While I'm openly in favor of supporting Ukraine

How about Palestine?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Do I support giving arms to Israel? No, but that wasn't the point of my post. It was an very high level explainer to head off the inevitable portrayal of this as a direct cash transfer.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Did you you seriously just describe your own comment as "very high level"?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Did you really confuse that for meaning "expert" and not "incredibly basic and way oversimplified"?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago
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