We recently marked the first anniversary of the beginning of ‘Putin’s War in Ukraine’ as the Biden administration and its minions in the mainstream media call it.
Nothing brings the politicians in Washington together like a shoot ‘em up war. Only a very few strident voices are speaking out against the hostilities. In fact, it may be the most popular war ever in this country.
Even anti-war balladeer Neil Young, who wrote and wailed multiple protest songs during the Vietnam era, is all in on the Ukrainians killing some Russians. As one Atlanta radio host termed it, “This is a war even the hippies love.”
Our government and its right arm, the military-industrial complex, are all about giving the people what they want.
I doubt anybody, including Biden who is busy trying to perfect that pesky stair climb into Air Force 1, knows just how much money we have spent on the war.
As of Jan. 15, the Council on Foreign Relations estimated those figures at $46.6 billion in military aid, $26.4 billion in financial aid and $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid. That amounts to $76.9 billion which we didn’t have to start with.
For comparison’s sake, we sent Israel $3.3 billion in military aid over the same period.
Here’s a sampling of the weapons earmarked for Ukraine: 1600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 2500 TOW missiles, 75,000 sets of body armor and helmets, 232 howitzers, 640 armored vehicles, 500 MRAP vehicles, 2500 drones and the list goes on and on.
Who is accounting for all this money and, more importantly, all those weapons? You can rest assured they won’t be returned to us still in the box and unused.
I am told by those who have been there that the everyday Ukrainian people are kind, caring and appreciative. But the country has always been a cesspool of corruption where oligarchs, arms dealers, swindlers of all descriptions and the occasional American like Hunter Biden have made dirty money off even dirtier deals.
Despite all that, Ukraine’s ever-so-slick President Zelensky is the man of the hour and presides over the most popular war ever – a war with no end in sight.
I can’t help but think we are being conned.
Unless public opinion shifts, America will be neck deep in this throughout. The vast majority of Americans will support it until their sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters are sent over there to fight.
Then, perhaps, Neil Young will remember the words to another Vietnam era anti-war song by Country Joe and the Fish.
Come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers and don’t hesitate
To send your sons off before it’s too late
And you can be the first ones on your block
To have your boy come home in a box!
Walter Geiger is the editor and publisher of the Pike County Journal Reporter and The Herald Gazette in Barnesville. He can be reached at news@barnesville.com
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