Over the weekend, US President Joe Biden doubled down on his pledges to send weapons to both Ukraine and Israel. However, a former senior US military officer said supporting war on so many fronts was unsustainable and would further degrade US military readiness.
After Hamas launched attacks on Israeli border towns last week that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared a siege of the Gaza Strip and unleashed a relentless bombardment that has killed more than 2,750 Palestinians as of Monday evening, with another 1,000 missing and at least 10,000 injured. After Israel fired thousands of Tamir missiles from its Iron Dome system - shooting down Hamas rockets targeting several major cities, Biden said the US would step in to resupply Israel.
Since then, Biden has also sent thousands of small arms to Israel and deployed two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region. On Monday, US media reported up to 2,000 US troops were ready to deploy to Israel, with plans to use the in non-combat support roles for the IDF.
The rush to buttress the Israeli military comes amid a political fight in Washington over continued US military aid for Ukraine, which has topped $46 billion over the last two years. Now, the question is whether the US can not only support Ukraine, but Israel, too.
“We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history - not in the world, in the history of the world,” Biden said in a pre-recorded US media interview that aired on Sunday. “We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.”
The White House is expected to ask Congress for an Israel aid bill, but the legislature remained locked in dispute over selecting a House speaker - a fight initiated, in part, but the previous speaker’s insistence on including Ukraine aid in next year’s budget.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231016/definitely-not-both-former-army-commander-says-us-cant-support-two-proxy-wars-1114240062.html

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US President Joe Biden reportedly intends to propose a $100 billion aid bill that would include funding for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and securing the border with Mexico, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.  It is believed that bundling the aid would ensure bipartisan support in Congress.

One anonymous source told Bloomberg that details of the bill “are still being worked out,” but noted that it would cover the entire fiscal year, which ends in October 2024. The earlier Ukraine aid request – which led to the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this month – was for $24 billion and covered only three months.

While the majority of both Democrats and Republicans supports sending military aid to Israel, the Republicans are less convinced about more money for Ukraine. 

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The House of Representatives needs to elect a new speaker before it can proceed with any legislation, however. It failed to do so on Tuesday, as Ohio Republican Jim Jordan did not have enough votes from his own party to secure the gavel.

Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who leads the Senate majority, told Bloomberg that he expects the White House proposal to arrive “by the end of this week” at the earliest.

“We’d like to get the supplemental package moved as quickly as possible because the needs are great in both Israel and Ukraine,” Schumer said.

Israel has asked for $10 billion in “emergency” aid from the US, according to the New York Times, as it fights the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the UK broadcaster Sky news that the US “can certainly afford” to support both Ukraine and Israel. 

“I’ve been to Ukraine and I can tell you that the direct economic aid that we are providing to them is what enables them to fight this war,” Yellen said. To date, Washington has committed at least $113 billion in aid to Kiev, including some $44 billion worth of military assistance.

Ukrainian defense ministry official Gennady Kovalenko admitted to the Washington Post earlier this month that Kiev “depends one hundred percent on the United states,” and that US aid was essential.

https://www.rt.com/news/585205-biden-aid-israel-ukraine-bundle/

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As reported in the New York Times, US President Joe Biden has accepted the summons from his master and will be in Israel to physically manifest his full support for the further enhanced genocidal assault against the people of Gaza which Israel has publicly announced its intention to launch.

Unless he has received prior assurances that Israel will not be proceeding with its planned all-out land, air and sea assault, which is extremely unlikely to be the case, Biden’s visible embrace of the horrors to come is profoundly and recklessly contrary to the genuine interests of the people of the United States, the Global West and even Israel.

As a matter of global perceptions, as well as potential criminal liabilities under international law, Biden will be confirming the co-belligerent status of the United States in Israel’s “war” and will be complicit in all Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity to come. His perceived blessing of the further planned horrors will inevitably fire up the hatred of the United States and Americans among the people of the Muslim world and, indeed, much of the Global South.

If the assault as publicly previewed is indeed launched, presumably soon after Biden leaves the region, it will be virtually impossible for Hezbollah not to open a second front in the north with far more deadly and extensive weaponry than Hamas possesses, at which point it will be virtually impossible for the two American aircraft-carrier battle groups now stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, officially to deter Hezbollah from interfering with Israel’s planned assault, not to start firing their weaponry at Lebanon, at which point all Americans in the Muslim world would be well advised to flee to safety as soon as they can.

The only slim hope of avoiding the currently programmed catastrophe is that, with each passing day, Israelis’ rage for revenge may be slightly moderated by reason and Israel’s leaders may themselves decide, after careful reflection and notwithstanding their macho promises of genocidal slaughter and mass expulsions, that it would better serve their own interests and those of their country to deem the horrors already inflicted on the people of Gaza an adequate collective punishment for their perceived sins, to cease fire and to start negotiating, presumably through third parties, a humane prisoner exchange, now including the 680 West Bank Palestinians arrested as counter-hostages since October 7.

In this context, the longer Biden stays in the region, potentially, the better.

This hope is excruciatingly slim, but it is the only hope.

Hospital massacre update

After today’s Israeli bombing of a major Gaza hospital that killed over 500 Palestinian civilians and as the capitals of Arab capitals are filled with enraged people demanding strong action against Israel and America, King Abdullah of Jordan has cancelled the planned “summit” with the American, Egyptian and Palestinian presidents.

If Biden renews his passionate public embrace of evil, he will earn for himself and his country the condemnation and contempt of all decent people in the world.

German Chancellor Olav Scholz, who was in Israel to “express solidarity with Israel”, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emanuel Macron and other Western leaders who have been expressing unconditional support for occupation, apartheid and genocide should also rapidly and radically revise and reverse their own advocacy of evil.

If they do not, the isolation of the Global West from the Global Majority, evident during NATO’s proxy war against Russia, is destined to be accentuated and become irreversible — and rightly so.

Postnote: The NEW YORK TIMES has also offered the following news item today: “Israel has asked the United States for $10 billion worth of emergency aid, according to three officials familiar with request. Lawmakers and the White House are crafting a package linking assistance to Israel with aid to Ukraine, funds to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border and aid to Taiwan.” Clearly, it is anticipated that further aid to Ukraine, difficult to achieve in the House as a stand-alone matter, should sail through Congress if it is linked to a further tribute payment to Israel. One may legitimately wonder why Israel has not requested $100 billion. Can anyone imagine that Israel’s loyal and obedient servants in Congress and the White House would have said no?

https://johnmenadue.com/advocate-of-evil-biden-is-complicit-with-israel/

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The US can ‘certainly’ fund two wars – but should it?

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen makes it clear that there’s always money for war but not for the people

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made headlines this week when she said that America can afford to help Israel and Ukraine in their respective war efforts. “America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,” Yellen told Britain’s Sky News.

“Inflation has been high, and it’s been a concern to households, it’s come down considerably. At the same time, we have about the strongest labor market we’ve seen in 50 years, with 3.8% unemployment. And at the same time, America, the Biden administration, has passed legislation that is strengthening our economy in years to come for the medium term,” she emphasized. 

Aside from the obvious fact that this is not true on its face, given that the House of Representatives has no speaker and thus cannot pass any appropriations for either country at the moment, one has to question the basic wisdom of this notion. Even if America could theoretically afford to support both war efforts, is it really a cause worthy of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars?

For example, in my column last week for RT, I referenced the fact that $24 billion in Covid-19-related funding for childcare centers around the country had expired the week prior (now two weeks ago), which, according to an estimate last month by the Century Foundation, will affect 3.2 million children, slash $10.6 billion in revenue from lost worker productivity as parents reduce hours or leave jobs in the scramble to find new care, and could result in the closure of as many as 70,000 care centers.

But we can also think a little bigger. It is estimated that so far, the US has pledged around $100 billion to Ukraine alone. Now the Biden White House has presented a draft appropriation package to Congress that would see another $100 billion sent to Israel, Ukraine, and the border, with the brunt of it designated for the former two. If America can afford hundreds of billions in bombs for its proxies, what else it might be able to afford?

Well, for just an estimated $173 billion more, the US would be able to follow through on President Biden’s plan to cancel $10,000 in student debt for federal borrowers. While virtually every study on the subject is in unanimous agreement that a single-payer Medicare for All health care system in the US would not only pay for itself but, in fact, save Americans several trillion over a decade (according to even the right-wing Mercatus Center), surely $200 billion could help increase coverage in the country. Finally, it is estimated that the first year of a tuition-free college model in America would cost about $58 billion – just around a quarter of current and proposed spending on Ukraine and Israel.

The US, though perhaps poised to fare better than Europe if only for its technological edge, military prowess, and energy independence, is in a sad state. People’s lives today are noticeably worse off than their parents’ generations; home ownership is unthinkably expensive, retirement planning is a pipe dream, and the ability to earn more than a subsistence living is beyond the reach of most. Even the aforementioned advantages that the US has relative to peers in the Global North are being beaten back by competitors like China – entirely because of Washington’s unwillingness to invest in anything other than the infinitely corrupt military-industrial complex.

o top it off, the strategy of stoking these two proxies at once runs the American Empire into a serious simultaneity problem, wherein it has to contend with the prospects of two civilizational wars, and potentially a third over Taiwan that it itself is edging closer to, without the serious potential to win any of them. There is no conceivable military strategy – evident by the failed proxy conflict in Ukraine alone, never mind Israel – in which Washington can contend with Russia and the entire Muslim world at once, with China potentially as an added bonus.

So, we return to the question, even if America could theoretically afford to support both war efforts, is it really a cause worthy of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars? Of course, it isn’t. The US must, for the sake of its people and humanity, focus on spending this cash at home while calling for diplomacy. This is even more apparent given the fact that the two existing conflicts, and the potential third, all involve nuclear states. It’s time to seriously reflect on our national priorities if we hope to survive as a nation, or even as a species.

https://www.rt.com/news/585336-janet-yellen-us-wars/

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Washington’s federal budget deficit essentially doubled in the government’s latest fiscal year as President Joe Biden’s administration continued to ramp up spending despite slumping tax revenue, a new US Treasury Department report has shown.

Government spending in excess of tax receipts totaled $1.7 trillion in the 2023 fiscal year, ended on September 30, up from $1.37 trillion in the preceding 12 months, the Treasury Department said on Friday. However, those figures were skewed by Biden’s failed effort to cancel student loan debts, making the 2022 deficit appear larger than it actually was and understating the 2023 total.

Excluding hypothetical costs and gains from the loan program, which the US Supreme Court blocked from being implemented, the deficit jumped to about $2 trillion in fiscal 2023 from less than $1 trillion a year earlier. With federal spending exceeding tax revenue for more than 20 straight years, US government debt has ballooned to $33.6 trillion, up nearly $6 trillion just since Biden took office in January 2021.

"We are a nation addicted to debt,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She added that with the economy growing and unemployment at a historic low, this should have been a time to “instill fiscal responsibility and reduce our deficits. Instead, we now face the prospect of paying more to finance the debt we already incurred, let alone the trillions of dollars we are projected to borrow over the coming decade.”

In fact, with interest rates rising, the cost of servicing the federal government’s debt is on course to exceed the nation’s defense budget by next year, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan policy group in Washington. Net interest costs surged to $659 billion in fiscal 2023, up 39% from a year earlier, while defense spending rose less than 7%, to $775.9 billion.

US tax receipts dropped by 9.3% in the latest fiscal year, to $4.4 trillion. Spending on entitlement programs rose sharply, partly because the government boosted Social Security payouts after the US inflation rate surged to a 40-year high. Social Security payments jumped 11%, to $1.3 trillion. Medicare costs climbed 18%, to $846 billion, while Medicaid payments rose 4%, to $616 billion.

The latest deficit figures come to light at a time when Biden is pressing for more funding from Congress to fund Ukraine’s conflict with Russia. The White House on Friday requested approval for $106 billion in emergency spending, mostly for aid to Ukraine and Israel. The package includes $61.4 billion for Kiev.

US lawmakers previously approved $113 billion in Ukraine aid, but House Republicans have increasingly pushed back against prolonging the conflict. US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his leadership post earlier this month, the first such congressional ouster in US history, reportedly after some of his fellow Republicans heard that he had promised Biden a Ukraine aid bill following passage of a stopgap spending measure that prevented a government shutdown.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen downplayed the rising US government debt, emphasizing that Biden planned to reduce future deficits largely by requiring rich people to pay more taxes. She also dismissed concerns that Washington can’t afford to deal with the Ukraine crisis and the Israel-Hamas war at the same time. “America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs, and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,”she told Sky News on Monday.

https://www.rt.com/news/585488-us-federal-deficit-doubles/

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While US lawmakers are yet to agree on the next funding package for Ukraine, the powers that be in the United States now mull how much more money their country can provide to the regime.

US President Joe Biden insisted that the United States is going to "continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can" on December 12.

The Pentagon recently claimed it can send around $4.6 billion worth of military hardware to Ukraine under the auspices of the Presidential Drawdown Authority that allows the government to send weapons from its own stocks to foreign countries when necessary.

However, the US Department of Defense has only $1 billion to replace the old gear, Bloomberg has noted, adding that sending weapons to Ukraine without guaranteeing their replacement is a “risky strategy.”

The Pentagon thus has to weigh its options carefully, being perfectly aware of the fact that “the Congress itself is not happy with sending more funds at this moment for a variety of reasons,” said Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense.

According to him, the DoD needs to keep in mind the need to replenish the United States’ own stockpiles as weapons get sent to Ukraine, “and 1 billion is not going to cut it.”

“Even though that money was apparently authorized, doesn't necessarily mean they've got it. There's one thing to have an authorization under our system, but another thing to actually have the appropriation,” Maloof explained to Sputnik. “So those funds in fact, without verification, they may not even be there.”

Basically, under the current system, the Pentagon would be authorized to spend up to $4.5 billion while essentially being able to appropriate one billion, he added, noting that the latter amount may already be dwindling as Biden has already approved some $200 million for Ukraine.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231213/us-unable-to-fight-one-front-war-after-ukraine-supplies-depletes-weapon-stocks-1115560867.html

THE ONLY WAR THE USA COULD FIGHT NOW IS A NUKE WAR WHICH IT WOULD LOOSE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE TOGETHER....

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