Lend Lease passes and will become Law

Pretty big deal- and yes a pretty huge escalation. This means that Ukraine can get a huge amount of arms support from the US. Passed unanimously in the senate. 10 republicans (usual suspects) voted against.

"The U.S. House gave final passage Thursday to legislation that would streamline a World War II-era military lend-lease program to more quickly provide Ukraine and other Eastern European countries with American equipment to fight the Russian invasion.

The measure, which passed by an overwhelming 417-10 vote, now goes to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.

Biden is expected to sign the bill into law, giving the administration greater leeway to send military equipment to Ukraine and neighboring allies in Eastern Europe.

“It is a real moment in history that we are back on this House floor supporting lend-lease,” said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.

The congressman said he hoped the “Churchillian idea” would end delays in shipping aid to Ukraine, much the way the original law sped help to Britain fighting Adolf Hitler’s Germany in World War II."

1 Like

Excellent move by congress. That ought to buy some influence for a change. lol

2 Likes

+10 from me for congress

1 Like

Another 10 from me

:ukraine: :fist:

Maybe the french will answer the phone.

Yea for War!

1 Like

Those guns aren’t just going to fire themselves you know. Bombs don’t just deliver themselves. :wink:

1 Like

4 months to make it to a year.

1 Like

All you 10s already sign up?

The parallel with the US supplying Great Brittan with arms and goods in 1939-40 is very sobering.

and Putin reads it as a declaration…

It was a virtual declaration of war back then. Germany torpedoed our destroyer (USS Kearny) escorting the lend-lease shipments even before December 7.

And it certainly was a factor in Japanese decision to bomb pearl harbor when we added China to the recipient list of the lend-lease program.

But I have plenty of potassium idiode and the ability to remove radionucliotides from drinking water. Got food and supplies for 3 people for a year.

YMMV.

That may not be enough …

Pissing away money we don’t have to deflect attention from his domestic screw ups. This is Klain.

4 Likes

Progs screamed that Trump was gonna cause ww3. They mostly live in cities. There’s gonna be some just rewards delivered.

5 Likes

I don’t know how I feel about this.

This is technically a huge escalation in our support.

This takes away any means of plausible deniability, which is how the US and the USSR got around obvious issues supplying their respective allied groups in the more “questionable” Cold War conflicts like Angola.

This essentially means that the Ukrainians could purchase the latest in American technology. Which is a problem. I had no issues with us giving them older Soviet jets and tanks in our Allied inventory, but this bill essentially means that they could purchase storage quality M1A1 Abrams tanks.

And I don’t like the idea of how the Russians will feel about seeing a very modern American tank blowing holes through their T-90s. It’s not a good look; any deniability is out the window with that. Or their troops being strafed by F-16s.

The previous level of support was working and it gave us reasonable claims for “denial.” Not in the true sense, but in that complicated geopolitical speak that both the US and the Russians used during the Cold War.

This makes me extremely nervous.

We are escalating.

It’s one thing to have Poland give them modernized T-72s in exchange for us (the west) giving Poland Leopard 2’s to refill Polish inventory.

It’s an entirely different thing for Ukraine to say purchase M1A1 Abrams directly from the United States and those turn up on the battlefield.

It won’t be anywhere near enough if the ■■■■ hits the real fan and Pandora’s box gets opened.

The entire northern hemisphere would be royally ■■■■■■■

It is, with the added issue of atomic weapons.
Putin can’t just be allowed to blackmail the world though.

And since we are for looking out for the interests of the world, did we coordinate this venture with the other industrial powers of the world so that we are not in this alone? Are they paying equivalent amounts comparable to their abilities?

No, he can’t. But we aren’t giving ourselves or the Russians a way to save face with this move.

We are committing ourselves in a way that we weren’t before. Before we could argue plausible deniability on why T-72s and MiG-29s were popping up in Ukraine’s inventory out of nowhere.

We can’t use that saving face maneuver if we are selling them modernized F-16s and M1A1 Abrams.

We can only hope that the rumors of Putin’s bad health are true and that he is not long for this world, because the likelihood that he will back down on his own is slim.