Image: Radio Rebelde.
By Alfredo García.
Seven months before the presidential elections in the United States, the dominant bipartisan system reaches a consensus on the geopolitical strategy that the next government that occupies the White House, whether Democratic or Republican, will follow.
Following the approval by the Senate last Tuesday of a package of 95 billion dollars in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with 79 votes in favor and 18 against, approved by the House of Representatives on Saturday with 311 votes in favor and 112 against, the controversial law was ratified last Wednesday by the president, Joe Biden.
The aid package was paralyzed in Congress for months, due to the apparent refusal of a group of Republican legislators to approve more aid to Ukraine, if measures were not also taken against undocumented immigration on the border with Mexico. Some Democrats also raised their opposition, because it included aid for Israel, being against how the Israeli military operation in Gaza is carried out.
The law includes $26 billion for Israel to replenish its air and missile defense systems, as well as $8 billion for Taiwan to improve its defenses against alleged threats from China.
The text also includes the ban of the application, TikTok, in the United States, unless the social network cuts its ties with its parent company, ByteDance, and in general with China, imposes new sanctions on Iran and authorizes Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets, so that they can be used to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
After the law’s ratification, Biden said he hopes the United States will begin “sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week.” The White House plans a first delivery, which includes tens of thousands of artillery shells, anti-aircraft missiles and a new round of ATCMS missiles, with a longer range of 295 km.
It turned out that the US has thousands of ATCMS missiles that have passed their useful life and are in storage waiting to be replaced by new generation missiles.
“The United States has begun transferring weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, and expects the first deliveries to arrive within days, if not sooner,” Defense Department spokesman Patrick Ryder said last Thursday, highlighting the “robust logistics network.” which allows the Pentagon to move material quickly.
The massive shipment of weapons and military equipment by the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other European NATO countries to Ukraine, without them becoming military objectives for the Russian air, naval and territorial forces, is a mystery.
US foreign policy is becoming increasingly sordid. Perhaps one day, it will be known why Republican congressmen spent six months negotiating the military aid package, while Ukraine was bleeding to death desperately crying out for military resources.
Neither are the reasons for Washington’s hesitations regarding military aid to Israel in the midst of the genocide in the Gaza Strip, nor military aid to Taiwan, while senior American officials visit China, to “improve” bilateral relations.
