As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.
It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.
Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.
All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.
I’m agreeing with you on wanting to help Ukraine, but think about what this power does. If Trump takes over he could make an agreement to give military equipment to Turkey so that Turkey arms Russia. He could give Mexico enough military equipment to pay for The Wall. He could give Saudi Arabia military equipment for nothing and then “unrelatedly” his son in law gets another few billion dollars to manage. It’s just structurally not good to give the president this power, Congress has to have the power of the purse.
The ends don’t justify the means because this isn’t the ends. This will keep happening under all presidents for all sorts of reasons. And this isn’t the only way to get money to Ukraine so the moral weight isn’t just on this. He could get to a deal with House Republicans, or he could push other countries to fund Ukraine more unrelated to using the loophole. There are options.
I also disagree with your “oh sure, let’s focus on this instead of the REAL stuff”… I’m not saying to ignore Ukraine funding. We can talk about two things at the same time. You’re the one saying to ignore the loophole because something you like is happening right now.
As the President is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces though, isn’t this a strategic prerogative of the position though?
Selling equipment that has been made obsolete could be a military prerogative, which is why the law is written like that, but selling below market value in exchange for a political favor is certainly not a necessary military power, and not one you would want a military to have.
Take the specifics out of it and think of it like gold bars. Does Treasury need gold bars? Probably. Say they have the ability to buy and sell gold bars to fit their legal requirements. Whatever, right? Who cares. That’s part of their job. Now say the president starts giving away gold bars for free to his friends. Not really the same thing as “selling” anymore. That’s obviously a qualitatively different thing.
That equipment and those gold bars are worth something, they were paid for by US tax dollars and revenue from a sale would go back to pay back the US debt. But they are being given away for free. So that is the same thing as giving away tax dollars. Which should be a Congress decision.
The US political system is so far beyond your “respect your power” pipe dream it’s laughable you can make this comment with a straight face. The entire Republican Party has become a one trick pony of obstruction and doing nothing. They can’t even fund the fucking government.
Its that line of thought that gives rise to authoritarians. We have to believe in the Constitutional separation of powers.
And for the record the Republicans are funding the government, so far. They’re just doing it by CR instead of an actual budget.
Lol. We already have authoritarians. Wake up boomer, your idealistic ideas are exactly why we are here. Democratic capitulation of Republican authoritarianism and fascism has created a dysfunctional and unsustainable system. Username checks out.
So you’ve just gone full circle and now you’re pro-authoritarian because the other guys are too. K.
You have completely jumped the shark if you think appropriating decommissioned weapons to an ally to help a democratic country fight against a dictatorship is “authoritarian”. It’s been done for over 50 years imbecile.
The pro-authoritarian thing you said is that we don’t have to respect the Constitutional separation of powers.
Just wanted to point out that whether it is an undemocratic move or not does not depend on the recipient of the aid.