‘‘Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024"
Epic Bill for Ukraine and Israel is finally in motion, and gives allies paths to peace.
The full Bills for Ukraine can be seen here, for Israel here, and for the Asia-Pacific here.
The Bills that West has been holding its breath over is finally going forward, with a vote expected on Saturday April 20th.
Their names, like ‘‘Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024’,’ are not bell-ringing calls to action - not something you could carve into a monument to freedom. But they should be.
The aid they provide will give the two US allies currently in ‘hot wars’ the tools they need to finish their jobs, and the ally in a cold war situation the deterrence to hopefully prevent aggression.
In Ukraine, the mission is straightforward: get back the territory Russia stole.
In Israel, it is more complicated: though the immediate threat is Iran, the end-game needs to be peace for the entire region.
The new Ukraine Bill is an allocation of $60.48-billion.
Another $26.38 billion for Israel will "support Israel in its effort to defend itself against Iran and its proxies."
At the risk of sounding over-zealous, once more America has come forward and has paid a huge price (literally) for the sovereignty of its allies.
For Ukraine, this includes $23.2 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities and $11.3 billion for current U.S. military operations in the region. The US has been training Ukrainian troops elsewhere in the region and continues to maintain readiness and a presence across the continent, including countries in eastern Europe such as Estonia.
It also includes $13.8 billion for the purchase of advanced weapons systems plus $26 million to "continue oversight and accountability" of aid provided to Ukraine.
For Israel, $5.2 billion will help replenish Israel's missile and rocket defense systems, and another $3.5 billion will go to advanced weapons. Weapons production will be enhanced by another $1 billion, and $4.4 billion will go to supplies and services - including aid to Gaza. It does prohibit funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides support to Palestinian refugees.
The smallest of the three bills would provide $8.12 billion to deter China’s moves in the Asia-Pacific region, with $3.3 billion allocated to developing submarine infrastructure. In a recent simulation US nuclear-powered submarines were able to “wreak havoc with the Chinese fleet.” The Virginia-class subs used in the exercise are perhaps the most important weapon for deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. At twice the size of WW2 U-Boats they can move at 28 miles per hour while remaining hidden in the ocean depths for months at a time, and fire their weapons while submerged.
Another $2 billion in foreign military financing will go to Taiwan and other key allies in the region.
Lest anyone think this kind of aid for military defence is all that America does, and that America is somehow a war-focussed country, let us remember the acts of equal American strength that saved lives.
Few tragedies have been so devastating…and few have seen such a moment of unselfish action as America’s humanitarian response to the Russian famine of 1920.
Never has such a monumental story been so completely erased – because it is embarrassing for Russia, and because it is a story of “peace” in America, so it did not stay in the headlines or the collective memory.
But it should, because this is what America can do…
It was a time when mothers led their children out into the open Russian steppe and left them there to die, because there was no food to give them. Some stabbed their children to death rather than watch them starve. In the district of Ramyshkovska people began eating corpses. Burials had to be carried out in secret, or else starving villagers would dig up the bodies. A guard was posted at the graveyard.
The famine of 1921 was one of the worst in history. It hit Russia especially hard: seven years of civil war had torn apart social and physical structures. A lack of rain was only part of the crises; the other part was the government of Lenin, which was determined to make war on its own peasantry. Bolshevism was an urban cause, led by factory workers. Rural peasants were victims to be used. By the end of the year perhaps as many as thirty - six million men, women, and children faced starvation…20% of the entire population. The expanse of the famine was vast, stretching 800 miles north to south, from Vyatka to Astrakhan , and 350 miles west to east, from Penza to Ufa.
In desperation the Soviet government invited the American Relief Administration (ARA), the brainchild of Herbert Hoover, future president of the United States, to save Russia from ruin. For two years , the ARA regularly fed over ten million men, women, and children across a million square miles of territory in what was the largest humanitarian operation in human history.
This was not even America’s first Russian rescue. In the later 1880’s, The Tsar’s government began a massive program of industrialization, to be financed by the sale of grain abroad. In the late summer of 1891, the crops failed after a terrible drought. A group of Midwestern Americans donated more than 5-million pounds of flour. When the ship arrived in Russia it was greeted by jubilant crowds.
The ARA swung into action in 1921 with typical American efficiency, administrative talent, and organizational know-how, all of which only highlighted the shortcomings of the Soviet government. ARA officials scouted the famine area and immediately grasped that the program would have to be expanded well beyond the original objective of feeding one million children. Hoover doubled the size of the operation. The move was met with approval in America. The New York Tribune ran an editorial titled “Really Helping Russia,” endorsing the plan: “America is still America; her ears are not deaf to cries of human want.”
In many Russian districts millions of people had no source of help except the ARA. It encountered parents who were trying to give away their children, for they had no way of feeding them; people lying in their homes waiting to die; women and girls ready to sell themselves for a bit of bread; and refugees by the thousands fleeing to they knew not where — just to escape.
One woman, lying on the floor of her hut weak from hunger and crying, told them she had sold her clothes for food and burned all the furniture to keep warm. Her husband was in the hospital with typhus. They’d been cold and hungry for days now. An ARA worker described the scene in a letter to is wife: When all hope was gone, they had prayed, as their little girl had assured her [the mother] that God would hear their prayers.
And then the Americans walked into the room.
The rest, as they say, is history - except in America and Russia, which have both obliterated its memory for different reasons, one because of absent-mindedness (“oh yeah that happened”) and the other out of malice (‘it never happened, Russia is perfect”).
So although the current Bill before the House is about supporting war, let us not forget what America has given for peace over the years.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson might be giving something as well: he is putting his job on the line with this Bill, as the Flake Wing of the Republican Party has threatened to take away his job if this goes forward. Flake One is Marjory Tailor Greene, who is a puppet of Don-The-Courthouse-Sleeper. She is not happy.
The Ukraine bill would give some $48 billion to the U.S. Defense Department to provide Ukraine with training and equipment and replenish US stockpiles in Ukraine. This includes much-needed anti-aircraft systems like the Patriot missiles around Kyiv. S-200 and S-300 surface-to-air missile systems are also slated for a refill.
Artillery shells have been in very short supply in Ukraine, with the Russians able to shoot 10 shells for every one that Ukraine can respond with.
As a result, Russia has continued a “gradual advance” west of Avdiivka over the last month,
"I would say the conditions now are probably more favorable for a Russian breakthrough than at any time since the opening stages of the war," Bryden Spurling, an analyst with the RAND Corporation, had warned before the aid Bill was put forward.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, was just as blunt, saying “Give us the damn Patriots.”
He had a right to be testy. Ukraine has never asked for troops. It is willing to put its own citizens forward to fight this battle on behalf of the West. 95% of Ukrainians still think they can win…up 4% from a year ago. Each month Ukraine lasts, is another jolt of confidence for Ukraine.
And now they have this massive show of force from the US.
Granted, it has not completely passed yet, but the main hurdle is over: getting on the Floor for passage.
Even Greene said that she would not move on her motion to expel Johnson as speaker before the vote on foreign aid.
A number of Republicans have said they will not support the Bill, but they are in a comfortable minority.
In other words, there are no apparent obstacles to its passage.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries stated that “Our topline commitment is ironclad. We are going to make sure we stand by our democratic allies in Ukraine, in Israel, in the Indo-Pacific.”
The House Bill also includes a requirement for the Biden administration to provide Congress with a strategy to Congress for what it seeks to achieve in Ukraine. There was no indication of how detailed the strategy needed to be (“Win.”).
Johnson has indicated that the recent Iranian attack on Israel has forced Republicans to understand the “necessity of standing with Israel,” and the recent Russian attacks in Ukraine have illustrated the desperate need for weapons. His position on Ukraine has changed since he became Speaker and began receiving regular intelligence briefings.
Johnson said: “History judges us for what we do. This is a critical time right now.”
President Biden concurs: “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”
For those who think America is draining away its strength on this cause, here is a nice graphic showing that the US is spending 0.32% of its GDP on support for Ukraine. The graphic covers all expenses between January 24, 2022 and January 15, 2024.
Perspective is everything.
So we await the final developments this weekend, and stand ready to celebrate with our Ukrainian and Israeli friends!
The #Russian “bots” are out and about trying to paint #Ukraine’s #Azov-brigade fighters in an unfavorable light given the pending vote on #Ukraine-aid in the U.S. Congress. Here is my response to the fools still capturing their monthly salaries in rubles … “You've been misled and are parroting #RazPutin's #Kremlin-narrative. The reason #RazPutin and his troops are terrified of #Ukraine's #Azov-brigade is because he knows they are the most ferocious and dedicated battalion on the planet! To the #Ukrainian-people they are the most heroic compatriots with absolutely no "quit" in them enduring extremes that would turn a common man's guts inside-out irrespective of any ancient symbolism them may rally around, if any. On the other hand, the #Amerikan-nazis like yourself should pick up your torch-carrying tiddlywinks, quit your domestic terrorism against our #Hebrew-Amerikan families here in #Amerika, and go join the #Azov-brigade ranks at the front lines in #Ukraine if you really want to show us your valor, which of course you pussies have none!” ~ Eat Like a Soviet Eugene
Excellent article, Barry.