2 weeks ago
20
The United States has announced individual aid packages as they are formulated and shipped, leading to weekly or twice-monthly announcements. This has allowed the U.S. to send whatever it is that Ukraine needs in that particular moment—heavy on anti-tank and anti-air missiles early on, sophisticated air defenses over the winter, to mostly artillery shells and rocket ammunition today.
Every once in a while, a major new weapons system makes an appearance, be it HIMARS rocket artillery, Patriot air defenses, M2 infantry fighting vehicles, or M1 Abrams tanks. Maybe F16 fighter jets will make that list someday.
Thing is, while the total amount of aid is set in advance by congressional authorization, the piecemeal announcements are becoming a political and practical problem. It’s time to promise it all, to give Ukraine the certainty it needs to plan its future operations, to shut up the pro-Putin MAGA seditionists who are trying to make Ukraine aid a political rallying cry, and to let Russia know that waiting for the 2024 presidential election isn’t a viable strategy. Donald Trump won’t bail him out.
