Summary
Trump’s move to defund USAID is causing unintended consequences for American farmers and businesses.
The Washington Post reports that USAID purchases billions in U.S. agricultural products, with American farms supplying 41% of its food aid.
The funding freeze has already halted $340 million in food shipments, leaving tons of wheat stranded in Houston.
Experts warn this decision directly harms American jobs and businesses, as much of USAID’s aid is administered through U.S.-based organizations employing American workers.
A fair amount of those weapons needed to be used anyway as well. This gets them used, and builds up a fresher stockpile creating/maintaining jobs.
They didn’t need to be used. They could have been destroyed instead.
Well sure, and to commit genocide I’d rather they have been destroyed, but in the case of Ukraine, it’s better than destroying them.
Yeah, I agree for Ukraine.
Not only is it better to give them to Ukraine than to just destroy them, it also lets American generals and weapons manufacturers learn how they work in a real combat situation, and in conditions they may not have much experience with.
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American generals and weapons manufacturers have some experience with desert warfare. But, Ukraine gives them a chance to see how their systems do in sub-zero weather in winter. They also get to see how their systems do against a near-peer enemy, vs. how they do against guerillas and militias.
The war in Ukraine is a very smart “investment” for the American military and for American military companies. They get to learn lessons while not having any American soldiers at risk, and while massively damaging an enemy like Russia.
Giving them to Israel is bullshit though. Not only is Israel in the midst of an ethnic cleansing campaign, there also aren’t many useful lessons to be learned by another campaign of smashing civilians, guerillas and militias in a desert.
Just got me laughing thinking of a multi million dollar munition being shot at civilians with no defences (okay not that part, but the next part) and the military contractors being like, yep, the missile works when there’s (edit: zero) counter measures to stop it, in conditions we’ve tested a hundred times before in combat. Guess we don’t learn anything this time!
Yeah, sometimes you have to laugh so you don’t cry.