Americans growing impatient with Ukraine war

Photo: New York Times

Ukraine is beginning to sound like Vietnam, and Americans are losing patience, notes US ‘19fortyfive’ site.

No country has spent as much on Ukraine’s defense as the U.S. Ukraine has received a total of over $113 billion in American military, economic, and financial aid, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

This marks the largest flow of aid to a belligerent nation since the U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in 1941. That paved the way for the transfer of $51 billion in today’s dollars in aid.

“The United States has provided billions in funding for Ukraine since the start of the war. The four supplemental aid packages passed by Congress to support Ukraine since the war began totals over $113.4 billion,” CSIS reported. “Appropriated in these packages is $62.3 billion for the Department of Defense, $46.1 billion for the Department of State and USAID, and $5 billion for other government agencies. The fourth package, which provided $48 billion, was approved in December 2022 by Congress.”

European countries that face a more imminent threat from Russia have given far less than the U.S. The Washington Post noted earlier this month that European Union had given Ukraine $35.9 billion; the United Kingdom had given $11.7 billion; and Germany had given $11.6 billion, rounding out the top three.

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A Pentagon inspector general’s report found that weapons that were transferred to Ukraine often were improperly secured, and that they had ended up in the hands of criminal elements.

CNN noted that in the period of February-September 2022, the Office of Defense Cooperation-Kyiv “was unable to conduct required [end-use monitoring] of military equipment that the United States provided to Ukraine in FY 2022.”

So far Ukraine has not been able to make significant gains through its counteroffensive. Ukraine’s strategy of following Soviet patterns of thinking that seek to minimize rivalries by equally distributing resources across military commands instead of massing forces in pursuit of a single objective is causing consternation, The New York Times reported.

Aid to Ukraine with little to show for it is becoming increasingly unpopular among the American people. History shows that Americans do not support prolonged engagements. That was true with the Vietnam War. Public opinion turned against that conflict in the summer of 1966. The same happened with the Iraq invasion in the summer of 2004.

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