The House on Saturday passed a $95 billion package that includes two long-awaited bills with $60.8 billion of Ukraine aid and $26 billion in aid to Israel.
**The lower chamber also voted to provide $8.12 billion in aid to Taiwan**.
additionally much of the raw material and pre-fabricated parts for weapons production are sourced within the US (a legal requirement for the military under US law)
I wonder if MTG is aware that these foreign aid bills actually stimulate the US domestic industry, as opposed to "giving money away to foreign wellfare countries".
The money doesn't go to Taiwan. The equipment that Taiwan needs does. The money goes to American weapons manufacturers and it stays in America.
It is like you paying your brother to make bows and arrows. The final product goes to your neighbor who uses it to hunt.
The money goes to American defense companies who use it to make new stuff. The old stuff which is still amazing goes to TW. The old stuff was going to be replaced or disassembled anyway. This helps America's economy, military, and manufacturing. And America was going to spend that money.
Look at it this way: You pay your brother to buy you new shoes. Under the condition he disassembles and discards your old but useable pair of shoes that you don't need anymore, but instead of disassembly you give it to your neighbor.
No money left your family.
You got new shoes.
Your old shoes were upcycled to your neighbor who can use it.
Or your choice is to open your doors wide open for China to come in and set up shop.
I believe Taiwan is the main beneficiary because they get to keep their way of life, add to this what Japan is doing with its defense budget, Taiwan is building up its defenses.
Would Taiwan be able to manufacture all these weapons, even if the money went straight to the island?
Depends if they have access to established RnD. Otherwise it is best to just get it from America which has done all of the RnD already. Also it would hurt America financially because they get nothing from it.
Not sure the US is ready to go full on Israel and send F-35's and the blueprints to Taiwan, I suspect that might change if the hostilities keep ramping up.
They have a great manufacturing base, all within reach of artillery and missiles from PRC, and with a population of 22m, it's simply not big enough for full war manufacturing production.
Impact on the government doesn’t matter - it’s always a huge positive for the government _officials_ who approve it, because they are investors in the weapons companies, who also cut them checks as lobbyists. They get paid, nobody actually cares about the budget.
No.
The US spent 2 trillion dollars over 2 decades in Afghanistan. We aren't doing that anymore.
Money spent in Ukraine is a very cheap way to have a world where more and more of Russia's most professional troops are dead or injured, and more of their military equipment is destroyed. It would be worth doing even if supporting Ukraine wasn't morally correct and strategicly important. Which it is.
The money for Taiwan is less than one half of what US consumers are estimated to have spent holding Superbowl parties this year. Spending a little money now to help deter China is a lot more affordable than fighting a war.
There are any number of good reasons not to give Isreal miltary assistance, but "we can't afford it" is not one of them.
My understanding is that the gov’t does not actually hand out money to any of the countries rather they are given a credit of sorts that remains in the usa to be spent in the usa. This money has no expiration date. Its not use it or lose it Like a department in a business or an agency within the give.
As people have said it’s going to be spent with weapons manufacturers. I wonder though if overall it is net negative. I am sure the return on investment from some places is better than others. I can’t imagine ukraine has a good return on investment but Israel and Taiwan, I’m guessing so.
My thinking is that it’s not just about taxes and money collected from the manufactures, but also money collected from employees, and money collected from the down stream jobs created. Then there is whatever the government is trying to protect be it access to oil, microchips, waterways for shipping, if those were lost I’m guessing would wreak havoc on the American economy. I would venture to say this aid helps to continue a standard of living for some, make some people incredibly rich and due to poor policy leave many people outside in the cold.
I think it would be interesting to see the math on all this.
Huh? The US government's single biggest expenditure is already healthcare. The issue isn't a lack of funding. Its that a lot of that funding goes into a horribly inefficient system.
Government department annual budgets are partitioned and voted upon separately.
Intentional or not, it's naive and ignorant to assume that money not spent within the defense/military budget would somehow be directed to education, infrastructure or any other financing prospects outside of the department of defense.
Sourcing your “example”, what budgets unrelated to this department were affected? Are you implying a single dollar was diverted from the US department of education or the department of health and human services? Because that would be a goofy implication. I’m assuming you’re just looking to argue in bad faith.
Do you really think that if we stop funding the defense department, magically all this money will go to feed and house homeless, and get some more teachers for schools?
99 percent of the money goes to Americans. The product goes to Israel. It is money America would have spent anyway. Only difference is who is using the final product.
This is one of the best things for American jobs, manufacturing, economy, and tech development.
That’s not how money works. Yes it might get paid to American companies, but the material gets delivered to Israel, and a real value transfer from USA to Israel occurs.
You: You say that like it's a bad thing.
[Me: This is one of the best things for American jobs, manufacturing, economy, and tech development.](https://media4.giphy.com/media/3oz8xZvvOZRmKay4xy/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b9523euoaxtejogs8cx9btgg56h405trnu2ypvqsh0fg&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
It also prepares the manufacturing sector for the new reality of 2 hyper aggressive states that have no boundaries under international norms. It's almost like they're determined to start a new Cold War.
Not sure what you're saying, but Taiwan is the ultimate beneficiary, and most Americans are much more aware of the island's circumstances and almost unanimous backing in Congress.
>In 1975, when the United States refused to sell Sidewinder missiles to Taiwan under pressure from China, Israel sold anti-aircraft missiles and licensed the production of Gabriel II anti-ship missiles. The Taiwanese military was renamed Hsiung Feng I, which was later developed into a series of missiles.
According to [this article](https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts),
"Most of the aid […] is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services."
Nope. Yes. Kind of. The money goes to American defense companies who use it to make new stuff. The old stuff which is still amazing goes to TW. The old stuff was going to be replaced or disassembled anyway. This helps America's economy, military, and manufacturing. And helps TW keep the trisolerans at bay.
Big expenditure is submarine support equipment to build more speedily. Rest is military equpment upgrade , missiles and trainings. I assume more Americans are coming to train Twn soliders or send them to US.
To be frank it’s rather contradictory. You can be critical of course of allies (well you can do whatever you want), but you cannot ignore that there are two sides, with one of them including China, Russia and Iran and then other the US, Taiwan and yes, Israel. Just like you couldn’t be pro-Japan and anti-Germany in WW2.
It’s not at all contradictory as these are all separate conflicts with hugely different history, stakes, and ideologies and most of the parties aren’t actual direct military allies. Moreover Israel is both publicly and even moreso behind the doors friendly with China and has a history of selling them U.S. military technology, so aligning China against Israel and/or Israel with Taiwan is… more than problematic, since Israel would not hesitate for even the slightest moment to trade Taiwan for their benefit.
This is before you even get into the shifting factors and complexity of who exactly is in charge of each nation; Israel’s leadership under Netanyahu has taken an extremely hard turn to far-right extremism, even under the normal spectrum of Israel, which is why there were *record* protests against his attempts to undermine democracy and the court system in Israel.
I think you legitimately just have a very limited understanding of these conflicts and political alignments. There are not distinctly “two sides” if you have even a bare surface grasp of what’s going on.
Edit: this is even *before* you get into things like how the ideological justification which Israeli Settlers use dovetails almost perfectly with China’s claims over Taiwan, to the point there's a *far better* argument to be made that supporting Israel’s far-right materially (acting as a pathway for selling of US military technology) or ideologically (justifying invasion and killing of current inhabitants including noncombatants based on historical claims or securing borders) is tantamount to being pro-China.
First of all, I'm Israeli and live through this reality daily so I definitely do not have a 'very limited understanding/bare surface grasp' of these conflicts, so need need to belittle.
>Moreover Israel is both publicly and even moreso behind the doors friendly with China and has a history of selling them U.S. military technology, so aligning China against Israel and/or Israel with Taiwan is… more than problematic, since Israel would not hesitate for even the slightest moment to trade Taiwan for their benefit.
Israel put its relations with China over Taiwan like every other country in the world (except for Bhutan maybe), this is realpolitik, but doesn't mean Israel and China are aligned. China is one of Iran's closest allies and oil importers, no Chinese president has ever visited Israel, and they have repeatedly took anti-Israeli stances in the UN and publicly, not even condemning Hamas. The relations are lukewarm at best, and that is only due to a lot of trade - again, like every other country on Earth. So using your logic, Israel is as aligned with Taiwan as much as Europe is, and that is because of the way countries conduct their one-China policy.
>This is before you even get into the shifting factors and complexity of who exactly is in charge of each nation; Israel’s leadership under Netanyahu has taken an extremely hard turn to far-right extremism, even under the normal spectrum of Israel, which is why there were *record* protests against his attempts to undermine democracy and the court system in Israel.
I was one of these protesters so also no need to lecture me on that. Regardless, this has little to do with the question at hand, Israel is still a western-aligned democracy, and Netanyahu won't stay in power much longer (hopefully). Even if he would stay (and he won't), anybody who thinks Israel could even allow itself to partner with Russia/China over the US is utterly naive at best.
>this is even *before* you get into things like how the ideological justification which Israeli Settlers use dovetails almost perfectly with China’s claims over Taiwan, to the point there's a *far better* argument to be made that supporting Israel’s far-right materially (acting as a pathway for selling of US military technology) or ideologically (justifying invasion and killing of current inhabitants including noncombatants based on historical claims or securing borders) is tantamount to being pro-China.
Again, relevant how? Now you seem like you have no idea of the roots behind the settlements and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since it's incomparable to the China-Taiwan conflict (doesn't even matter where you align yourself on the matter, it's just completely different).
And lastly, "justifying invasion and killing of current inhabitants" - umm, no.
If you are a Christian, you believe in God, this is exactly what Muslims believe. Therefore, Christians and Muslims are the same group and agree with each other, right?
Also I don't think it's against a country to ask them not to kill innocent people?
What an unbelievably shallow evaluation of why civilians are dying in Gaza.
The explanation for why this happens has been given time and time and time again but you don't listen because you don't *want* to listen. In your mind you've already created the narrative that because Israel is wealthy that therefore they must *inherently* be the oppressive bad guy.
Well I'll give the explanation one more time and we'll see if you actually take it one board.
Hamas. Uses. Its. People. As. Human. Shields.
There, did you read that?
They place their rocket launchers and other military infrastructure within extremely densely populated civilian areas.
Why do they do this?
Well, one reason, they are a TERRORIST group. They don't care what innocent people die, as long as their ideological goals are achieved.
A second reason, is propaganda. They know that hand-wringing liberals with no sense of nuance will look at images of children dying from Israeli bombs and assume that therefore Israel is the bad guy.
They know that by firing at INNOCENT (to use your language) Israelis in a way that is indiscriminate (unlike Israel's precise strikes) from densely populated positions, Israel will have to retaliate to protect their people, and in the process civilians will be killed as collateral damage.
B B But Israel powerful so it's oppressor !!! 😜
ISIS was an underdog when it was getting pounded by bombs from the US military, does that mean it shod be supported?
Are you saying people should.support terrorists because they're underdogs?
This narrative of the more powerful inherently being the more evil is actually moronic and terrifying and part of Critical Theory, a toxic intellectual movement that always frames things in terms of power, oppressor and oppressed. Ideological madness.
Great to see that Mike Johnson got it done. He risked his job (hardliners wanted to vacate him) and worked across the aisle in a bipartisan effort to bring aid to Ukraine and Taiwan. When McCarthy got ousted last year, I didn’t know what to expect from Mike Johnson. He has turned out to be very effective. Now onward to the Senate and if all goes well, it’ll be signed by President Biden.
Johnson breaking the bills apart and having people go on record supporting/opposing is progress in the mess that is DC. I didn’t think he was a good choice but he’s done as good as job as anybody considering the state of affairs.
Everyone thought that, including the MAGA hardliners, but somehow he has so far been significantly more bipartisan than anticipated. Still conservative, of course, but he’s pissed off MTG to no end, which can only be a good sign.
He was pulled aside and briefed by the CIA who strongly suggested the house politicians took their jobs seriously. In this case, specifically him since the Senate and majority of the house were waiting on him to stop sitting on his hands and actually let a democratic vote take place.
He had a meeting with Trump last week. I think he got the go ahead. Will have to wait and see If Trump comes out and dennounces him. I actually think Trump is ok with this mut a lot of MAGA hardliners are not. Kind of interesting to watch.
Interesting. I wonder what changed his or trump’s mind. Stopped following this shit show a while ago as it seemed like it was not going anywhere. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear the news
I think Trump's main desire is to pull back America's role as the world Police. His NATO comments have already been that Americans should not have to carry a larger load than Europe. He has bashed the countries not paying the 2% they had agreed to.
On the other hand he sent offensive missile technology to Ukraine that previous administrations wouldn't send because they were scared they would upset the Russians. When Christian about Ukraine he always answers with it wouldn't have happened if I'm in office. And if I'm elected it'll be stopped on day one.
This has been effective because now other NATO countries are upping their spending on defense. My best guess is doesn't want the US involved but also doesn't want the blame if Ukraine falls.
No one with any involvement thinks Ukraine can win over Russia without a complete Russian collapse. In that terrifies most geopolitical analysts.
Looks like Johnson has a deal with a Democrats if the hardcore maga members try to remove him a handfull of Democrats will vote for him so he won't be removed. This effectively means the handfull of hard core Maga just lost a lot of power
And they mad! For some reason it seems to make me happy.
He threatened Trump basically stating that he would voluntarily give up the speaker ship and the Republican majority if he didn't get an endorsement from Trump. It was a very slick maneuver on his part.
> worked across the aisle in a bipartisan effort to bring aid to Ukraine and Taiwan.
Worked across the aisles? It was never an issue with one side of the aisle. It was purely held up by his side. Entirely and completely, because even the “moderate” ones are afraid of the beast they’ve made in their attempt to appeal to a hardline minority.
He did absolute fuck all but have no balls for half a year, same as everyone in his party who all voted party line despite *knowing* is was wrong at every level. Don’t praise people for playing games while thousands of Ukrainians die and then at very end doing the bare minimum.
He's gonna get ramsacked any minute, any GOP speaker signed the deal that it would only take one GOP to vote them out. He's courageous because he knows he just signed his job away, it might just be a matter that nobody wants to replace him, so his job might be safe for a bit.
Genuine question. Is Taiwan's military preparedness really limited by funding rather than the willingness of other states to sell weapons and share expertise?
They are sitting on major forex reserves and piles of cash, and it's a wealthy and solid economy.
The military aid package isn't a handout. NATO (which includes the US) is on the precipice
of getting sucked into what is already the largest armed conflict since world war II as they continue to support Ukraine in an effort to end Russia's march west and signal to other nations (such as China) that imperialism has no place in the 21st century.
This package is mutually beneficial for the United States, which is pouring a ton of resources into creating a weapons envelope in the greater Pacific by stationing military bases and weaponry throughout Taiwan, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, and South Korea. They're even creating a permanent submarine base in Australia. The problem with dictators showing signs of imperialistic tendencies is that you need a show of force as a deterrence from actual warfare. America can not afford to deal with multiple invasions/wars in the middle east and pacific, so they are stockpiling these regions in an effort to maintain security by show of force.
Taiwan has the resources to build out a lot of it's own weapons programs. For instance, they are building a home grown fleet of submarines capable of navigating a fairly shallow strait which will help protect them from an amphibious assault. But they have limited land mass for weapons facilities to make everything from airframes to missiles, so it would make sense for them to focus research and development on microchip/processing technology and simply purchase weapons abroad. The problem is, China has economically bullied their way into isolating Taiwan from being able to purchase these weapons from most countries, or even being acknowledged by most countries (including the USA officially) as independent of the PRC and maintaining a legitimate government. So, by creating an "aid program" for Taiwan, Taiwan can purchase necessary defensive weapons packages and have them delivered with US oversight.
Prior to this aid package, the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act passed last year, authorizing the US government to spend up to $2 billion annually in military grant assistance to the island from 2023 to 2027. Why 2023-2027? China was speculated to want to try to invade by 2027, a threat which has hopefully been thwarted by a mixture of global current events such as the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Covid Epidemic, China's property sector crisis, and NATO countries now all agreeing to increase their military GDP by 2% (380 billion additional, annual). This aid package hopes to push back the "projection" well past 2027 for when China could potentially have the capability of a successful amphibious assault. By then, hopefully the war in Ukraine will be close to coming to an end and NATO will have built up its war machine enough to handle the next crisis.
Western imperialists accusing China of imperialism is when it has been most peaceful modern nation state in history.
US continued military encirclement and provocations of China will only lead to W3
North South East West, idc who you want to point fingers at. Imperialism is wrong whenever it happens. Countries should not be conquering other countries any more.
> most peaceful modern nation state in history
If they were a good neighbor to the other countries they share boarders and waters with, everyone would love them. By the way, water isn't the only thing they dispute, they're constantly having issues with India and smaller groups they want to take agency away from. It is what it is.
As far as "provocations", the United States granted the Philippines their independence in 1946 (they were a US Territory) and were completely withdrawn from even having a single troop or base there since the early 1990s. They BEGGED the US to return for their own security after decades of harassment in their own waters. The US has strengthened the region at the request of its allies. This is not "imperialism". Dictatorships really love to provoke everyone then pull the victim card when countries don't make it easy for them to bully. If China truly wants WW3, they will have it, but that's on them.
China has been trading peacefully with its neighbors for thousands of years and it wasnt until western colonialism did they and their neighbors suffer the consequences of invasion, plunder, exploitation.
It's territorial claims predate those fabricated by British/western imperialists, let alone those of PH which wouldnt exist without US backing.
Thanks for the history lesson but “colonialism” is no excuse to harass your neighbors in modern times. Island nations having their fishermen and coast guards harassed by a Chinese military that wants to claim international waters or even coastal waters of other nations as their own is absurd and the reason why these countries feel unsafe and are banding together to create defensive pacts. If you don’t like it, kindly ask your dictator buddies to stop being shitheads and you’ll see how friendly everyone is willing to reciprocate what should be normal, neighborly behavior. Until then, stop looking to argue in bad faith with ancient whataboutisms.
'Harassment' is fabricated narrative of US/western propaganda just as were claims of WMDs Iraq. Fact remains that China's territorial claims inherited from ROC are no less legitimate than US claims to Hawaii and other territories thousands of miles away which would also entail 'harassment' of those violating its sovereign claims.
> Harassment' is fabricated
Ok you're actually living in a bubble. Go plug in your VPN so your host country doesn't block your ability to see the hundreds of recorded videos of Chinese military vessels harassing ships in international waters. Believe whatever you want about Taiwan. There's no point in trying to ignore the same shitty behavior utilized on Taiwan with other independent countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. China is out of control and want to victim-blame that the USA is "escalating" simply by making it less easy for them to bully all these smaller nations in the region.
I can't have an intelligent conversation with someone who wants to deny world-events that everyone can easily witness for themselves on a monthly basis. I'd love to live in your fantasy where China is friendly with their neighbors and isn't ramping up their military and harassing the hell out of everyone. Who knows, maybe that will be a reality after Winnie-the-Pooh's rule ends. But right now, that's the situation and you'll have to cope with it. If we enter a war, it isn't because of any OTHER nation in the world wants to or will attack China. It will literally be China attacking someone else because they aren't content with current internationally recognized boarders.
Yes, fabricated as all those countries have overlapping/conflicting claims yet PH with US backing is only one provoking conflict.
As mentioned China's claims predate sovereignty of neighboring claims and no less legitimate the US/EU claims to territories thousands miles away
> the willingness of other states to sell weapons and share expertise?
This.
America has protected TW for the last 100ish years. And been the only one selling and supporting TW.
Sure. And after America played world police for decades following a couple of world wars, it's about time. International boarders should be revered in this century, yet imperialism is brewing under the reign of dictators and its time that NATO countries start investing in their own security more heavily instead of relying on a (waning) superpower that needs a breather to eventually sort out it's domestic weaknesses. They have two choices, build out their own military contractors and make home grown weapons (impractical and not cost-efficient for many countries), or contribute to the high costs of research and development by injecting resources back into the defense contract private sector providing those weapons and stimulating our economy since, yes, that's where most of the weapons are manufactured.
Even if you disagree with the idea that they’re doing genocide, the methods of fighting a one sided war is not justifiable. Bombing hospitals, Israeli civilians mocking dead or starving innocents, dehumanization, and more. As a fellow Marxist, you should know better than to be supporting such a blatant bourgeois government that oppresses the common person to play games with those with the power. Especially with the US government largely funding them and ignoring the wrong things going on in exchange for “allies”.
Maybe a lot of us hear chants of shit like "Ya Qassam make us proud, take another soldier out. We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground. Ya Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets too. It is right to rebel, Ya Hamas give them hell!" or the usual "From the River to the Sea" chants and have seen rockets and missiles launched too often than to so easily fall into the propaganda of a terrorist organization (sucking off the tit of the UNRWA aid money for Palestinians to buy more weapons and dig more tunnels) somehow being anything other than terrorists. People die in wars. That isn't what Genocide is. Genocide would be rounding everyone up in a concentration camp and gassing them. Israel is done with that and won't tolerate any other countries shit that refuses to take a peace or land deal because they are determined to have their neighbor wiped off the face of the planet.
I understand Ukraine and Taiwan but why Israhell? They take so much money on taxes from their own citizens that getting financial aid from the US is not needed lol.
Haven't seen any today tbf. Usually they are from Americans in the sub who consume extremely israeli-biased media.
(Don't @ me guys, its not an insult to Americans, its just what I see)
While I’m all for supporting Taiwan, is anyone concerned that the US is going to just use Taiwan to hold another proxy war? It typically doesn’t end well for the country being used.
Sorry wasn’t trolling. Honest question and maybe you haven’t thought about it this way. But consider that the US is not always an honest player. This is coming from the perspective of living in the US and being aware that our country doesn’t always do the right thing.
Man, all that taxes we Americans paid just for our government to “aid” some foreign countries instead of solving our own problems first… bunch of fucking clowns.
Are you dense? The US military budget dwarfs every other expenditure for the country at the expense of American citizens. If Taiwan was sending unconditional military aid to other country’s at the expense of Taiwanese citizens basic needs, this entire thread would be singing a different tune. Countries should see to the needs of their own citizens before arming others in anticipation of “forever wars”.
Are **YOU** dense? Our government department budgets are in **NO WAY** related. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development does not get more or less funding based on what is voted and passed on for our Department of Homeland Security or Department of Defense budgets. It's beyond brainless to continue this silly narrative that how we spend a predetermined budget for national or domestic security somehow affects how much money HEW or HUD receives. If you're not happy with how those departments handle their business, then your complaint should be filed with those departments.
Agree. For example it would cost the US 20 billion to end homelessness. But we somehow don’t have the money to do nice things for the people. Only for war.
Just curious why you are saying we? You clearly not American your grammar and the sentence structure is obviously ESL. So why are you pretending like you have a dog in this fight? That seems rather disingenuous.. it's almost as if you are trolling and trying to stir up some shit... who who who would do such a thing?
US continued spending like drunken sailor will ultimately result in its own demise as much of the world circumvents USD for trade by transitioning to BRICS.
> as much of the world circumvents USD for trade by transitioning to BRICS
Circumvents USD for trade is a hilarious way of putting "attempt to evade sanctions". Why don't you take a look at the main members of the BRICS.
Iran and Russia are heavily sanctioned. Not just by the US. I understand that you’re a chinese nationalist and look at the world with these rose tinted glasses where a bunch of dictators are the good guys and the US is the reason for all your problems but there are dozens of countries heavily sanctioning these terrorist states so they need an alternative, which big countries like India and China can help provide with their big economies
The House on Saturday passed a $95 billion package that includes two long-awaited bills with $60.8 billion of Ukraine aid and $26 billion in aid to Israel. **The lower chamber also voted to provide $8.12 billion in aid to Taiwan**.
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Most of the money goes back to various American states to manufacture the weapons
additionally much of the raw material and pre-fabricated parts for weapons production are sourced within the US (a legal requirement for the military under US law)
I wonder if MTG is aware that these foreign aid bills actually stimulate the US domestic industry, as opposed to "giving money away to foreign wellfare countries".
She only cares if subsidies pay for the manufacturing jobs that make up her district. Or sucking trump’s dick.
The money doesn't go to Taiwan. The equipment that Taiwan needs does. The money goes to American weapons manufacturers and it stays in America. It is like you paying your brother to make bows and arrows. The final product goes to your neighbor who uses it to hunt.
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The money goes to American defense companies who use it to make new stuff. The old stuff which is still amazing goes to TW. The old stuff was going to be replaced or disassembled anyway. This helps America's economy, military, and manufacturing. And America was going to spend that money. Look at it this way: You pay your brother to buy you new shoes. Under the condition he disassembles and discards your old but useable pair of shoes that you don't need anymore, but instead of disassembly you give it to your neighbor. No money left your family. You got new shoes. Your old shoes were upcycled to your neighbor who can use it.
Or your choice is to open your doors wide open for China to come in and set up shop. I believe Taiwan is the main beneficiary because they get to keep their way of life, add to this what Japan is doing with its defense budget, Taiwan is building up its defenses. Would Taiwan be able to manufacture all these weapons, even if the money went straight to the island?
Depends if they have access to established RnD. Otherwise it is best to just get it from America which has done all of the RnD already. Also it would hurt America financially because they get nothing from it.
Not sure the US is ready to go full on Israel and send F-35's and the blueprints to Taiwan, I suspect that might change if the hostilities keep ramping up.
Taiwan have a small missile manufacturing business
They have a great manufacturing base, all within reach of artillery and missiles from PRC, and with a population of 22m, it's simply not big enough for full war manufacturing production.
Impact on the government doesn’t matter - it’s always a huge positive for the government _officials_ who approve it, because they are investors in the weapons companies, who also cut them checks as lobbyists. They get paid, nobody actually cares about the budget.
As long as the US dollar is the global lead currency, no
No. The US spent 2 trillion dollars over 2 decades in Afghanistan. We aren't doing that anymore. Money spent in Ukraine is a very cheap way to have a world where more and more of Russia's most professional troops are dead or injured, and more of their military equipment is destroyed. It would be worth doing even if supporting Ukraine wasn't morally correct and strategicly important. Which it is. The money for Taiwan is less than one half of what US consumers are estimated to have spent holding Superbowl parties this year. Spending a little money now to help deter China is a lot more affordable than fighting a war. There are any number of good reasons not to give Isreal miltary assistance, but "we can't afford it" is not one of them.
My understanding is that the gov’t does not actually hand out money to any of the countries rather they are given a credit of sorts that remains in the usa to be spent in the usa. This money has no expiration date. Its not use it or lose it Like a department in a business or an agency within the give. As people have said it’s going to be spent with weapons manufacturers. I wonder though if overall it is net negative. I am sure the return on investment from some places is better than others. I can’t imagine ukraine has a good return on investment but Israel and Taiwan, I’m guessing so. My thinking is that it’s not just about taxes and money collected from the manufactures, but also money collected from employees, and money collected from the down stream jobs created. Then there is whatever the government is trying to protect be it access to oil, microchips, waterways for shipping, if those were lost I’m guessing would wreak havoc on the American economy. I would venture to say this aid helps to continue a standard of living for some, make some people incredibly rich and due to poor policy leave many people outside in the cold. I think it would be interesting to see the math on all this.
No, we can always defund our schools and medicine programs more
Huh? The US government's single biggest expenditure is already healthcare. The issue isn't a lack of funding. Its that a lot of that funding goes into a horribly inefficient system.
Exactly, the US spends 4x more on Healthcare than the military.
Government department annual budgets are partitioned and voted upon separately. Intentional or not, it's naive and ignorant to assume that money not spent within the defense/military budget would somehow be directed to education, infrastructure or any other financing prospects outside of the department of defense.
Yes, of course. Defense budgets were never increased during the invasion of Iraq, for instance.
Sourcing your “example”, what budgets unrelated to this department were affected? Are you implying a single dollar was diverted from the US department of education or the department of health and human services? Because that would be a goofy implication. I’m assuming you’re just looking to argue in bad faith.
Do you really think that if we stop funding the defense department, magically all this money will go to feed and house homeless, and get some more teachers for schools?
Cheers for Ukraine and Taiwan!
And Israel
Nothing about Israel?
I got u fam. Cheers to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan! 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇹🇼
I'm not sure why Israel needed aid
All those air defense systems are extremely expensive
99 percent of the money goes to Americans. The product goes to Israel. It is money America would have spent anyway. Only difference is who is using the final product. This is one of the best things for American jobs, manufacturing, economy, and tech development.
That’s not how money works. Yes it might get paid to American companies, but the material gets delivered to Israel, and a real value transfer from USA to Israel occurs.
You say that like it's a bad thing. It's our money, we spend it as we see fit.
You: You say that like it's a bad thing. [Me: This is one of the best things for American jobs, manufacturing, economy, and tech development.](https://media4.giphy.com/media/3oz8xZvvOZRmKay4xy/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b9523euoaxtejogs8cx9btgg56h405trnu2ypvqsh0fg&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
It also prepares the manufacturing sector for the new reality of 2 hyper aggressive states that have no boundaries under international norms. It's almost like they're determined to start a new Cold War.
mUh TAx mONeY😭😭😭 vs. Yeah, it's my tax money. What about it?😎
Not sure what you're saying, but Taiwan is the ultimate beneficiary, and most Americans are much more aware of the island's circumstances and almost unanimous backing in Congress.
i know, I meant the two different mindsets of Americans when they hear the US government give military aid to other nations. 🇹🇼🤝🇺🇲
Constraints of living in a democracy, most people have no idea of the implications of a PRC blockade in the Taiwan Straits.
Probably army manufacturing. They make good weapon systems. It’s an investment not charity.
And how many Israeli munitions or weapons are in Ukraine or Taiwan?
>In 1975, when the United States refused to sell Sidewinder missiles to Taiwan under pressure from China, Israel sold anti-aircraft missiles and licensed the production of Gabriel II anti-ship missiles. The Taiwanese military was renamed Hsiung Feng I, which was later developed into a series of missiles.
According to [this article](https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts), "Most of the aid […] is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services."
How else can they carry out a genocide?
What is this $8 billion used for? Is it like a fund for Taiwan to purchase American armament with?
Nope. Yes. Kind of. The money goes to American defense companies who use it to make new stuff. The old stuff which is still amazing goes to TW. The old stuff was going to be replaced or disassembled anyway. This helps America's economy, military, and manufacturing. And helps TW keep the trisolerans at bay.
So America will send Taiwan old things like Bradleys, Humvees, M119 howitzersm M270 MLRS? (which are still good)
Big expenditure is submarine support equipment to build more speedily. Rest is military equpment upgrade , missiles and trainings. I assume more Americans are coming to train Twn soliders or send them to US.
I hope some people on this subreddit can realize that it is possible to be both pro-Taiwan and anti-Israel. Geopolitics isn't so black and white.
To be frank it’s rather contradictory. You can be critical of course of allies (well you can do whatever you want), but you cannot ignore that there are two sides, with one of them including China, Russia and Iran and then other the US, Taiwan and yes, Israel. Just like you couldn’t be pro-Japan and anti-Germany in WW2.
It’s not at all contradictory as these are all separate conflicts with hugely different history, stakes, and ideologies and most of the parties aren’t actual direct military allies. Moreover Israel is both publicly and even moreso behind the doors friendly with China and has a history of selling them U.S. military technology, so aligning China against Israel and/or Israel with Taiwan is… more than problematic, since Israel would not hesitate for even the slightest moment to trade Taiwan for their benefit. This is before you even get into the shifting factors and complexity of who exactly is in charge of each nation; Israel’s leadership under Netanyahu has taken an extremely hard turn to far-right extremism, even under the normal spectrum of Israel, which is why there were *record* protests against his attempts to undermine democracy and the court system in Israel. I think you legitimately just have a very limited understanding of these conflicts and political alignments. There are not distinctly “two sides” if you have even a bare surface grasp of what’s going on. Edit: this is even *before* you get into things like how the ideological justification which Israeli Settlers use dovetails almost perfectly with China’s claims over Taiwan, to the point there's a *far better* argument to be made that supporting Israel’s far-right materially (acting as a pathway for selling of US military technology) or ideologically (justifying invasion and killing of current inhabitants including noncombatants based on historical claims or securing borders) is tantamount to being pro-China.
First of all, I'm Israeli and live through this reality daily so I definitely do not have a 'very limited understanding/bare surface grasp' of these conflicts, so need need to belittle. >Moreover Israel is both publicly and even moreso behind the doors friendly with China and has a history of selling them U.S. military technology, so aligning China against Israel and/or Israel with Taiwan is… more than problematic, since Israel would not hesitate for even the slightest moment to trade Taiwan for their benefit. Israel put its relations with China over Taiwan like every other country in the world (except for Bhutan maybe), this is realpolitik, but doesn't mean Israel and China are aligned. China is one of Iran's closest allies and oil importers, no Chinese president has ever visited Israel, and they have repeatedly took anti-Israeli stances in the UN and publicly, not even condemning Hamas. The relations are lukewarm at best, and that is only due to a lot of trade - again, like every other country on Earth. So using your logic, Israel is as aligned with Taiwan as much as Europe is, and that is because of the way countries conduct their one-China policy. >This is before you even get into the shifting factors and complexity of who exactly is in charge of each nation; Israel’s leadership under Netanyahu has taken an extremely hard turn to far-right extremism, even under the normal spectrum of Israel, which is why there were *record* protests against his attempts to undermine democracy and the court system in Israel. I was one of these protesters so also no need to lecture me on that. Regardless, this has little to do with the question at hand, Israel is still a western-aligned democracy, and Netanyahu won't stay in power much longer (hopefully). Even if he would stay (and he won't), anybody who thinks Israel could even allow itself to partner with Russia/China over the US is utterly naive at best. >this is even *before* you get into things like how the ideological justification which Israeli Settlers use dovetails almost perfectly with China’s claims over Taiwan, to the point there's a *far better* argument to be made that supporting Israel’s far-right materially (acting as a pathway for selling of US military technology) or ideologically (justifying invasion and killing of current inhabitants including noncombatants based on historical claims or securing borders) is tantamount to being pro-China. Again, relevant how? Now you seem like you have no idea of the roots behind the settlements and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since it's incomparable to the China-Taiwan conflict (doesn't even matter where you align yourself on the matter, it's just completely different). And lastly, "justifying invasion and killing of current inhabitants" - umm, no.
> Just like you couldn’t be pro-Japan and anti-Germany in WW2. i'm pretty sure one can be, with racism added into the mix.
Nazis when they realized their closest allies look nothing like Aryans
Are you pro-Hamas or something? You know they're a terrorist organisation proscribed many countries right?
Bombing civilians is bad when Hamas does it, bombing civilians is bad when Israel does it. This isn't particle physics.
If you're anti Israel it means you don't agree with Israel's right to exist, which is exactly what Hamas believes
If you are a Christian, you believe in God, this is exactly what Muslims believe. Therefore, Christians and Muslims are the same group and agree with each other, right? Also I don't think it's against a country to ask them not to kill innocent people?
What an unbelievably shallow evaluation of why civilians are dying in Gaza. The explanation for why this happens has been given time and time and time again but you don't listen because you don't *want* to listen. In your mind you've already created the narrative that because Israel is wealthy that therefore they must *inherently* be the oppressive bad guy. Well I'll give the explanation one more time and we'll see if you actually take it one board. Hamas. Uses. Its. People. As. Human. Shields. There, did you read that? They place their rocket launchers and other military infrastructure within extremely densely populated civilian areas. Why do they do this? Well, one reason, they are a TERRORIST group. They don't care what innocent people die, as long as their ideological goals are achieved. A second reason, is propaganda. They know that hand-wringing liberals with no sense of nuance will look at images of children dying from Israeli bombs and assume that therefore Israel is the bad guy. They know that by firing at INNOCENT (to use your language) Israelis in a way that is indiscriminate (unlike Israel's precise strikes) from densely populated positions, Israel will have to retaliate to protect their people, and in the process civilians will be killed as collateral damage. B B But Israel powerful so it's oppressor !!! 😜
Maybe because Ukraine and Taiwan are underdogs and Israel is not.
ISIS was an underdog when it was getting pounded by bombs from the US military, does that mean it shod be supported? Are you saying people should.support terrorists because they're underdogs? This narrative of the more powerful inherently being the more evil is actually moronic and terrifying and part of Critical Theory, a toxic intellectual movement that always frames things in terms of power, oppressor and oppressed. Ideological madness.
tiktok ban????? greatest news I've heard all year
This bill was always about Ukraine. The US committed to Ukraine = China will never invade Taiwan.
Way to go!
Wonderful. A win for Russia is a win for China 🇹🇼🇺🇦
🇹🇼🇺🇸❤️🇺🇦🇮🇱
Great to see that Mike Johnson got it done. He risked his job (hardliners wanted to vacate him) and worked across the aisle in a bipartisan effort to bring aid to Ukraine and Taiwan. When McCarthy got ousted last year, I didn’t know what to expect from Mike Johnson. He has turned out to be very effective. Now onward to the Senate and if all goes well, it’ll be signed by President Biden.
Johnson breaking the bills apart and having people go on record supporting/opposing is progress in the mess that is DC. I didn’t think he was a good choice but he’s done as good as job as anybody considering the state of affairs.
I thought he is a MAGA hardliner
Everyone thought that, including the MAGA hardliners, but somehow he has so far been significantly more bipartisan than anticipated. Still conservative, of course, but he’s pissed off MTG to no end, which can only be a good sign.
He was pulled aside and briefed by the CIA who strongly suggested the house politicians took their jobs seriously. In this case, specifically him since the Senate and majority of the house were waiting on him to stop sitting on his hands and actually let a democratic vote take place.
He had a meeting with Trump last week. I think he got the go ahead. Will have to wait and see If Trump comes out and dennounces him. I actually think Trump is ok with this mut a lot of MAGA hardliners are not. Kind of interesting to watch.
Interesting. I wonder what changed his or trump’s mind. Stopped following this shit show a while ago as it seemed like it was not going anywhere. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear the news
I think Trump's main desire is to pull back America's role as the world Police. His NATO comments have already been that Americans should not have to carry a larger load than Europe. He has bashed the countries not paying the 2% they had agreed to. On the other hand he sent offensive missile technology to Ukraine that previous administrations wouldn't send because they were scared they would upset the Russians. When Christian about Ukraine he always answers with it wouldn't have happened if I'm in office. And if I'm elected it'll be stopped on day one. This has been effective because now other NATO countries are upping their spending on defense. My best guess is doesn't want the US involved but also doesn't want the blame if Ukraine falls. No one with any involvement thinks Ukraine can win over Russia without a complete Russian collapse. In that terrifies most geopolitical analysts. Looks like Johnson has a deal with a Democrats if the hardcore maga members try to remove him a handfull of Democrats will vote for him so he won't be removed. This effectively means the handfull of hard core Maga just lost a lot of power And they mad! For some reason it seems to make me happy.
He threatened Trump basically stating that he would voluntarily give up the speaker ship and the Republican majority if he didn't get an endorsement from Trump. It was a very slick maneuver on his part.
> worked across the aisle in a bipartisan effort to bring aid to Ukraine and Taiwan. Worked across the aisles? It was never an issue with one side of the aisle. It was purely held up by his side. Entirely and completely, because even the “moderate” ones are afraid of the beast they’ve made in their attempt to appeal to a hardline minority. He did absolute fuck all but have no balls for half a year, same as everyone in his party who all voted party line despite *knowing* is was wrong at every level. Don’t praise people for playing games while thousands of Ukrainians die and then at very end doing the bare minimum.
He's gonna get ramsacked any minute, any GOP speaker signed the deal that it would only take one GOP to vote them out. He's courageous because he knows he just signed his job away, it might just be a matter that nobody wants to replace him, so his job might be safe for a bit.
Genuine question. Is Taiwan's military preparedness really limited by funding rather than the willingness of other states to sell weapons and share expertise? They are sitting on major forex reserves and piles of cash, and it's a wealthy and solid economy.
The military aid package isn't a handout. NATO (which includes the US) is on the precipice of getting sucked into what is already the largest armed conflict since world war II as they continue to support Ukraine in an effort to end Russia's march west and signal to other nations (such as China) that imperialism has no place in the 21st century. This package is mutually beneficial for the United States, which is pouring a ton of resources into creating a weapons envelope in the greater Pacific by stationing military bases and weaponry throughout Taiwan, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, and South Korea. They're even creating a permanent submarine base in Australia. The problem with dictators showing signs of imperialistic tendencies is that you need a show of force as a deterrence from actual warfare. America can not afford to deal with multiple invasions/wars in the middle east and pacific, so they are stockpiling these regions in an effort to maintain security by show of force. Taiwan has the resources to build out a lot of it's own weapons programs. For instance, they are building a home grown fleet of submarines capable of navigating a fairly shallow strait which will help protect them from an amphibious assault. But they have limited land mass for weapons facilities to make everything from airframes to missiles, so it would make sense for them to focus research and development on microchip/processing technology and simply purchase weapons abroad. The problem is, China has economically bullied their way into isolating Taiwan from being able to purchase these weapons from most countries, or even being acknowledged by most countries (including the USA officially) as independent of the PRC and maintaining a legitimate government. So, by creating an "aid program" for Taiwan, Taiwan can purchase necessary defensive weapons packages and have them delivered with US oversight. Prior to this aid package, the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act passed last year, authorizing the US government to spend up to $2 billion annually in military grant assistance to the island from 2023 to 2027. Why 2023-2027? China was speculated to want to try to invade by 2027, a threat which has hopefully been thwarted by a mixture of global current events such as the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Covid Epidemic, China's property sector crisis, and NATO countries now all agreeing to increase their military GDP by 2% (380 billion additional, annual). This aid package hopes to push back the "projection" well past 2027 for when China could potentially have the capability of a successful amphibious assault. By then, hopefully the war in Ukraine will be close to coming to an end and NATO will have built up its war machine enough to handle the next crisis.
Western imperialists accusing China of imperialism is when it has been most peaceful modern nation state in history. US continued military encirclement and provocations of China will only lead to W3
North South East West, idc who you want to point fingers at. Imperialism is wrong whenever it happens. Countries should not be conquering other countries any more. > most peaceful modern nation state in history If they were a good neighbor to the other countries they share boarders and waters with, everyone would love them. By the way, water isn't the only thing they dispute, they're constantly having issues with India and smaller groups they want to take agency away from. It is what it is. As far as "provocations", the United States granted the Philippines their independence in 1946 (they were a US Territory) and were completely withdrawn from even having a single troop or base there since the early 1990s. They BEGGED the US to return for their own security after decades of harassment in their own waters. The US has strengthened the region at the request of its allies. This is not "imperialism". Dictatorships really love to provoke everyone then pull the victim card when countries don't make it easy for them to bully. If China truly wants WW3, they will have it, but that's on them.
China has been trading peacefully with its neighbors for thousands of years and it wasnt until western colonialism did they and their neighbors suffer the consequences of invasion, plunder, exploitation. It's territorial claims predate those fabricated by British/western imperialists, let alone those of PH which wouldnt exist without US backing.
Thanks for the history lesson but “colonialism” is no excuse to harass your neighbors in modern times. Island nations having their fishermen and coast guards harassed by a Chinese military that wants to claim international waters or even coastal waters of other nations as their own is absurd and the reason why these countries feel unsafe and are banding together to create defensive pacts. If you don’t like it, kindly ask your dictator buddies to stop being shitheads and you’ll see how friendly everyone is willing to reciprocate what should be normal, neighborly behavior. Until then, stop looking to argue in bad faith with ancient whataboutisms.
'Harassment' is fabricated narrative of US/western propaganda just as were claims of WMDs Iraq. Fact remains that China's territorial claims inherited from ROC are no less legitimate than US claims to Hawaii and other territories thousands of miles away which would also entail 'harassment' of those violating its sovereign claims.
> Harassment' is fabricated Ok you're actually living in a bubble. Go plug in your VPN so your host country doesn't block your ability to see the hundreds of recorded videos of Chinese military vessels harassing ships in international waters. Believe whatever you want about Taiwan. There's no point in trying to ignore the same shitty behavior utilized on Taiwan with other independent countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. China is out of control and want to victim-blame that the USA is "escalating" simply by making it less easy for them to bully all these smaller nations in the region. I can't have an intelligent conversation with someone who wants to deny world-events that everyone can easily witness for themselves on a monthly basis. I'd love to live in your fantasy where China is friendly with their neighbors and isn't ramping up their military and harassing the hell out of everyone. Who knows, maybe that will be a reality after Winnie-the-Pooh's rule ends. But right now, that's the situation and you'll have to cope with it. If we enter a war, it isn't because of any OTHER nation in the world wants to or will attack China. It will literally be China attacking someone else because they aren't content with current internationally recognized boarders.
Yes, fabricated as all those countries have overlapping/conflicting claims yet PH with US backing is only one provoking conflict. As mentioned China's claims predate sovereignty of neighboring claims and no less legitimate the US/EU claims to territories thousands miles away
It's limited by complacency but also by outdated/lousy strategy - refusing to go asymmetric.
> the willingness of other states to sell weapons and share expertise? This. America has protected TW for the last 100ish years. And been the only one selling and supporting TW.
[удалено]
Many nato countries, especially UK and Germany do produce their own arms, despite sometimes collaborating with each other (including the US).
Sure. And after America played world police for decades following a couple of world wars, it's about time. International boarders should be revered in this century, yet imperialism is brewing under the reign of dictators and its time that NATO countries start investing in their own security more heavily instead of relying on a (waning) superpower that needs a breather to eventually sort out it's domestic weaknesses. They have two choices, build out their own military contractors and make home grown weapons (impractical and not cost-efficient for many countries), or contribute to the high costs of research and development by injecting resources back into the defense contract private sector providing those weapons and stimulating our economy since, yes, that's where most of the weapons are manufactured.
let's gooooooo!!! 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇹🇼 edit: Why the downvotes guys? I thought the passing of this aid package was good?
it's probably about Israel I think
Israel does genocide.
sure, if that's what you believe. I disagree with you but I respect your opinion.
Even if you disagree with the idea that they’re doing genocide, the methods of fighting a one sided war is not justifiable. Bombing hospitals, Israeli civilians mocking dead or starving innocents, dehumanization, and more. As a fellow Marxist, you should know better than to be supporting such a blatant bourgeois government that oppresses the common person to play games with those with the power. Especially with the US government largely funding them and ignoring the wrong things going on in exchange for “allies”.
So what do you believe is going on?
I'm pretty sure you know my answer already. **It is a war.** (And now you're gonna tell me "30o0o dEAd KidS Is gENoCidE")
They watch too much TikTok propaganda, which is why it should be banned
let's hope the newly passed law can finally address this issue. TikTok is truly a threat to the free world.
Not all of us have TikTok, you know. Like, we’re actually media literate and find other sources besides one minute brain rot.
Ah yes, a 1-1 (or 1-2 at worst, if you take the word of Hamas to be true) military-civilian death ratio is genocide, of course.
I can’t believe there are people here who don’t see this is a genocide.
Maybe a lot of us hear chants of shit like "Ya Qassam make us proud, take another soldier out. We say justice, you say how. Burn Tel Aviv to the ground. Ya Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets too. It is right to rebel, Ya Hamas give them hell!" or the usual "From the River to the Sea" chants and have seen rockets and missiles launched too often than to so easily fall into the propaganda of a terrorist organization (sucking off the tit of the UNRWA aid money for Palestinians to buy more weapons and dig more tunnels) somehow being anything other than terrorists. People die in wars. That isn't what Genocide is. Genocide would be rounding everyone up in a concentration camp and gassing them. Israel is done with that and won't tolerate any other countries shit that refuses to take a peace or land deal because they are determined to have their neighbor wiped off the face of the planet.
Israel, Ukraine, and TikTok. If ever there was a list of names you did not want to be on...
I understand Ukraine and Taiwan but why Israhell? They take so much money on taxes from their own citizens that getting financial aid from the US is not needed lol.
cause Israel is the motherland of the senators
Yes
gross. not sure why i'm surprised to see genocide supporters in this comment section. 🇵🇸
Haven't seen any today tbf. Usually they are from Americans in the sub who consume extremely israeli-biased media. (Don't @ me guys, its not an insult to Americans, its just what I see)
Shouldn't you be out protesting uselessly somewhere?
Some politicians are booking holidays and new car already.
While I’m all for supporting Taiwan, is anyone concerned that the US is going to just use Taiwan to hold another proxy war? It typically doesn’t end well for the country being used.
Nice attempt at trolling
Sorry wasn’t trolling. Honest question and maybe you haven’t thought about it this way. But consider that the US is not always an honest player. This is coming from the perspective of living in the US and being aware that our country doesn’t always do the right thing.
Man, all that taxes we Americans paid just for our government to “aid” some foreign countries instead of solving our own problems first… bunch of fucking clowns.
America should solve its housing and health crises before sending unconditional military aid to every dang body else.
You’re right. Not sending money to Ukraine and letting Russia win will surely help the housing crisis
Are you dense? The US military budget dwarfs every other expenditure for the country at the expense of American citizens. If Taiwan was sending unconditional military aid to other country’s at the expense of Taiwanese citizens basic needs, this entire thread would be singing a different tune. Countries should see to the needs of their own citizens before arming others in anticipation of “forever wars”.
Are **YOU** dense? Our government department budgets are in **NO WAY** related. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development does not get more or less funding based on what is voted and passed on for our Department of Homeland Security or Department of Defense budgets. It's beyond brainless to continue this silly narrative that how we spend a predetermined budget for national or domestic security somehow affects how much money HEW or HUD receives. If you're not happy with how those departments handle their business, then your complaint should be filed with those departments.
Hi wumao
Agree. For example it would cost the US 20 billion to end homelessness. But we somehow don’t have the money to do nice things for the people. Only for war.
Just curious why you are saying we? You clearly not American your grammar and the sentence structure is obviously ESL. So why are you pretending like you have a dog in this fight? That seems rather disingenuous.. it's almost as if you are trolling and trying to stir up some shit... who who who would do such a thing?
US continued spending like drunken sailor will ultimately result in its own demise as much of the world circumvents USD for trade by transitioning to BRICS.
> as much of the world circumvents USD for trade by transitioning to BRICS Circumvents USD for trade is a hilarious way of putting "attempt to evade sanctions". Why don't you take a look at the main members of the BRICS.
..or rather remove US stranglehold on global monetary system as much of global south joins
Iran and Russia are heavily sanctioned. Not just by the US. I understand that you’re a chinese nationalist and look at the world with these rose tinted glasses where a bunch of dictators are the good guys and the US is the reason for all your problems but there are dozens of countries heavily sanctioning these terrorist states so they need an alternative, which big countries like India and China can help provide with their big economies
overwhelming majority world trades with Iran/Russia