the nasty dangerous american eagle...

Moscow, officials from the Donbass republics, and even the regional administrations of Ukrainian territories liberated by Russian forces have repeatedly charged Kiev with the use of its Western-sourced artillery systems to indiscriminately target civilian infrastructure.

The Pentagon has committed $92 million to replenish the US military’s stocks of the M982 Excalibur, a 155mm artillery shell with an effective firing range of up to 57 km, Bloomberg has reported, citing a DoD accounting document.

The $92 million was spent “for the procurement of replacement M982 Excalibur munitions transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort to counter Russian aggression,” the document said.

If Bloomberg’s reporting is accurate, the document is the first direct confirmation that Washington is supplying the shells to Kiev, with US officials previously remaining tightlipped or wriggling their way out of direct answers to media questions on the matter.

Apart from the US, Canada is the only other NATO power to have sent Excaliburs to Ukraine, with Ottawa announcing in April that an unknown number of the shells would be gifted to Kiev alongside four pieces of field artillery.

Manufactured by Raytheon and BAE Systems, the Excalibur is equipped with a GPS guidance system enabling it to hit within 2-4 meters of its intended target, and can be used by a variety of self-propelled and towed howitzers and field guns, including the M109, M198, M777, and the PzH2000 – all of which have been sent to Ukraine in recent months.

The system was first tested in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan during the US and NATO-led occupations of those countries.

The cash injection will enable the US military to buy roughly 900 Excaliburs during the current fiscal year.

Along with the Excalibur replenishments, the Pentagon is spending $337 million to replace other artillery rounds sent to Ukraine, $260.6 million for GMLRS rockets, $745.5 million to stock up on Stingers, $471 million on 16 HIMARS, and $263 million to reimburse the US Air Force for lugging US equipment across the Atlantic to Europe.

The new spending adds to the tens of billions of dollars’ worth of military and economic aid made by Washington to Kiev over the past six months. On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the White House had approved another $675 million in military assistance, including howitzers, shells, Humvees, armored ambulances and anti-tank systems, among other weapons and munitions.

Moscow has slammed Washington and its allies over their arms deliveries to Kiev, pointing to the danger they pose in escalating the Ukraine crisis, setting the stage for future conflicts, and facilitating lucrative weapons smuggling operations by criminal groups. Last month, a Sputnik Arabic investigation into dark web weapons sales found an arms dealer willing to ship American-made M4 assault rifles from Ukraine to Yemen via Poland and Portugal. Separately, CBS News released and then scrubbed a documentary which found that only “30 percent” of the equipment donated to Ukraine by the West was actually reaching the front lines.

The Russian military and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Militias and civilian administrators in the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye have also accused Kiev of using the precision weaponry it receives from the West to indiscriminately shell residential infrastructure. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the Ukrainian military’s constant shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant threatens to unleash a nuclear catastrophe.

https://sputniknews.com/20220908/pentagon-quietly-deployed-deadliest-artillery-shell-in-uss-inventory-to-ukraine-report-1100551504.html

poorer at home….

Since the beginning of the ongoing Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Washington has supplied Kiev with unprecedented amounts of funding, not least military assistance worth a total of at least $54 billion, according to the New York Times.

Republican Senator Rand Paul has lashed out at what he describes as a huge gap between Congress' priorities and those of normal US constituents, especially when it comes to funding programs.

Speaking to Fox News, Paul argued that there’s an “enormous disconnect between those in Washington and those on the ground, like in Kentucky,” his home state which was hit by “severe” flooding in late July in which 40 people died and “hundreds of homes were lost”.

The Republican pointed to a total $54 billion dollars of funding that Washington has reportedly sent to Kiev since the beginning of Russia’s ongoing special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine on February 24. According to the senator, this sharply contrasts with the fact that Kentucky and much of Appalachia has struggled with serious infrastructure issues for decades.

“I was just out there,” Paul claimed. “Not one person said, ‘Can you please send more money to Ukraine?’ They said, 'How come we're a rich country and we're having trouble digging our ditches, repairing our roads and all of the basic functions of government?'”

“And yet in Washington, it's not just Democrats. You've got Democrats and all the Republican leadership lining up saying, ‘Please send more of our money to Ukraine,’ but I'm not hearing it at home at all,” he said.

Paul suggested that billions of taxpayer dollars pertaining to foreign assistance could be better spent at home on infrastructure-related issues, adding that these hefty sums could also help Americans ride out soaring inflation and energy crisis.

Referring to the US’ total national debt, Paul said, “We're $30 trillion in the hole and it's inflationary”. According to him, “You borrow more money to buy weapons. It also causes inflation. And so really what I hear still around Kentucky and around the U.S. is, 'My gas costs so much. We can't go on vacation this year. The groceries cost so much [….]”.

In an apparent nod to constituents, the senator argued that, “They all instinctively know this is from the massive debts, the massive borrowing, and the huge COVID lockdowns and all the mistakes that were foisted upon us by Democrats, by Biden, by the Democrat Congress.” Paul warned that he thinks that “there's a huge wave building”.

The remarks followed US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announcing that the White House had approved another $675 million in military assistance to Kiev, which includes howitzers, shells, Humvees, armored ambulances and anti-tank systems, among other weapons and munitions. Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington that supplying Kiev with arms will only prolong and aggravate the Ukraine conflict.

https://sputniknews.com/20220910/rand-paul-hits-out-at-enormous-disconnect-between-priorities-of-congress-and-constituents-1100638853.html

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