As if Washington had not exported enough misery to Eastern Europe — no, to all of Europe and Russia — in the past two years, the Biden administration has asked Congress for another $24 billion in aid for Ukraine this August. This is on top of $113 billion already approved. Most of the money is for arms and military training. To attract broader support, Biden has linked the war money to funds for emergency relief and border security.
Biden has reason to worry about getting approval. This worry goes beyond the visceral rejection of anything to do with Biden by ultra-right Republicans who never met a warplane they didn’t like. A CNN poll published Aug. 4 showed 55% of the respondents opposing more aid to Ukraine. Even more telling, about 80% of those polled believe the war will drag on indefinitely.
Philadelphians demand money for people’s needs, not war, Oct. 15, 2022. (WW Photo: Joe Piette)
This disgust with the war has arisen despite the overwhelming propaganda falsely presenting the Kiev regime as a bulwark of democracy and courage. This is true even with few U.S. troops coming home in body bags, and none officially. This poll foretells an upswing in opposition should the war continue to drag on or to escalate.
Perhaps workers in the U.S., who have no real interest in defending Kiev, in expanding NATO or in demonizing Vladimir Putin, let alone provoking Russia, are catching on to Washington’s plans for Ukraine.
If they read between the lines, even in the corporate media’s war reports, they might decide that the vaunted Ukrainian “counteroffensive” has flopped and that corruption haunts the Kiev regime’s state structure from its top arms dealer —who made billions of dollars disappear — to the military recruiters who accept bribes to excuse individuals from conscription.
War bloggers argue that weapons sent from NATO’s stocks soon go missing, many quickly destroyed by Russian artillery and missiles. For the merchants of death in the U.S. — that is, the owners of the military-industrial complex — this is happy news. It’s a perpetual market for their goods. For the working class in the U.S. and the other NATO countries, it’s a perpetual burden.
The sniff of defeat in Kiev has reached across the sea. Rot stinks. A handful of rich are getting richer on the misery of a war. And this war, as we have shown in articles over the past 20 months, has been provoked by NATO’s eastward expansion. The antiwar movement in the United States must demand: No more funds for war in Ukraine!