"The U.S. giving financial aid to Ukraine is an "incredible" investment for the country, as Washington is spending "peanuts" for what, economist Timothy Ash told
Newsweek, would eventually produce wins "at almost every level" if Russia is defeated.
Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24,
Congress passed a
spending bill worth $13.6 billion in aid to Ukrainians and, in
May, the Senate approved nearly $40 billion in additional support—a major package including military, economic and humanitarian assistance.
Ash told
Newsweek that the U.S. defense budget exists to counter whatever threats the U.S. faces, and at this very moment, Russia would be among the biggest threats to American security, together with China, North Korea and Iran.
"If you take the total U.S. defense budget and kind of allocate to likely threats, compared to what I estimate with the spend-per-threat [of Russia], which is between $100 billion and $150 billion, spending $40 billion for Ukraine this year is just an incredible spend-per-threat," Ash said.
"Spend-per-threat" is a term that he had coined to indicate the amount of money spent to deter a certain danger coming from another country.
"The ability to erode Russia's conventional force with no threat or no loss to U.S. life is just incredible. The ability to destroy your enemy without putting your own forces at risk with relatively modest investment just strikes me as a gift for the U.S.," Ash said, adding that America's spending on Ukraine is, over the long term, "a no-brainer."
https://www.newsweek.com/how-sending-aid-ukraine-saving-us-billions-dollars-1761058
www.theguardian.com
