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January 4, 2023

With the passage of the ludicrous omnibus bill the total amount spent and committed to be spent by the United States in Ukraine since the Russian invasion is in excess of $110 Billion.  That amount exceeds the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 130 nations. Further, only America and its chief adversaries China ($239 Billion) and Russia ($154 Billion) spend more per year on their defense budgets.

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During this same period of time the 27 nations of the European Union plus Great Britain have spent or committed to spend $36 Billion in Ukraine or half of what the taxpayers in the United States have been obligated to contribute.   

Meanwhile the U.S. national debt is now $31.5 Trillion and will, due to unconstrained spending, increase at least another $15+ Trillion in less than ten years, thereby abetting uncontrolled inflation and potential insolvency.   (It took this nation 224 years to accumulate the first $15 Trillion, 13 years for the second $15 Trillion and less than 10 years for the third $15 Trillion.) The United States with less than 5% of the world’s population is responsible for 45% of global national debt.   

By comparison, the national debt of the 27 countries in the European Union plus Great Britain is currently $18 Trillion, and their debt is equivalent to 90% of their annual GDP ($20.4 Trillion). The national debt of the United States is equivalent to 137% of its annual GDP ($23.3 Trillion) as America’s national debt far exceeds its annual economic output. 

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Why is the United States, experiencing runaway inflation and unfathomable debt growth, footing the vast majority of the cost and not the nations of Europe who can afford it and are most directly impacted and threatened by the Ukrainian invasion?   Why, despite America’s unparalleled level of spending, is Volodymyr Zelensky unabashedly browbeating the United States to commit to unlimited as well as unaudited billions more?  Why, in response to this browbeating, is the feckless Joe Biden and members of both parties in Congress committed to spending American taxpayer money in Ukraine for an undefined “as long as it takes”. 

The answer lies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, an alliance in which America took upon itself the role of the military protector of Western Europe.  The ruling class in the United States, regardless of changing circumstances in Europe and incapable of restraining their lust for spending, fervently believes that it is their calling to protect the ancestral home of socialism and modern day globalism.    

The sole purpose of NATO was to protect Western Europe and, thus, the United States, against Soviet Union aggression.   History has shown that once the stated purpose of a military alliance no longer exists that alliance must be disbanded, or it will assume other purposes that inevitably lead to conflicts.   The American ruling class not only decided to avoid the process of turning over the defense of Europe to the Europeans after the collapse and irretrievable breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 but to expand and redefine NATO’s purpose. 

The divorce process should have been accelerated in 1993 when the European Union with unified economic, social and security policies came into being while Russia embarked on democratization.  Instead, the nations of Europe were determined to stay reliant on America and its massive defense commitments instead of spending their own money.  They and the American ruling class duplicitously continued to cast Russia as the same threat the old Soviet Union posed in order to keep NATO alive. 

An irrational fear of a non-existent empire and its satellites was conferred upon its much smaller and far less formidable successor nation-state, Russia.   The population of present day Russia is 33% of that of the Soviet Union with its satellites and the GDP of present day Russia is effectively less than 30% of that of the former Soviet Bloc.  

The combined population of the European Union plus Great Britain (512 million) is 3.5 times larger than Russia (146 million) and their overall annual GDP of $20.4 Trillion is 12 times larger than the GDP of Russia ($1.7 Trillion). After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Europeans were more than capable of defending themselves against an anemic and far less lethal Russia.