Taps Coogan – October 24th, 2022
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The following chart, from Statista, shows the largest sources of military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
The punchline is pretty straightforward. The US has committed nearly twice as much aid to Ukraine as the entire EU. The UK has pledged twice as much as the largest EU backer: Germany.
For people that have followed the EU’s defense free-riding this should come as little surprise. Despite having a roughly similar GDP-per-capita to the US, despite Ukraine being on the EU’s border, despite the EU’s energy supplies flowing through Ukraine, despite Ukraine being a candidate for EU membership, and despite endless virtue signaling and Ukrainian flag waving, at the end of the day, the EU nations (with the exception of Poland and the Baltic states) have neither the military capability nor the desire to be relevant in an actual conflict near their own borders.
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To be fair, the US has 2/3 the population (330 million) as the EU+UK (500 million) which is why the % of GDP metric is more relevant. Poland is giving 2.5 times as much aid, relative to their GDP, as the US. Norway, which arguably has no interests at stake, is giving twice as much. The real issue is lack of leadership from the 2 main players, France and Germany. At the end of the day, France doesn’t give 2 sh!ts about “European” interests, only French interests, typical French arrogance. Macron talks about “strategic autonomy” from the US (to which… Read more »
We shouldn’t have given Ukraine a cent. We shouldn’t be involved there at all.