Retired colonel claims funds meant for Ukraine end up in the hands of the military-industrial complex and will eventually dry up
FILE PHOTO. Ground personnel unload weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, and other military hardware delivered on a National Airlines plane by the United States military at Boryspil Airport near Kyiv, in Boryspil, Ukraine. © Getty Images / Sean Gallup
The West will eventually lose interest in the Ukraine conflict and run out of resources to support Kiev in its war against Russia, a top former US military official said.
“There is no strategy. What we have is impulse,” retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor told Judge Andrew Napolitano on his YouTube channel on Friday.
In a wide-ranging interview, MacGregor said much of the military aid earmarked for Ukraine never reaches the country itself.
“Most of the money goes to the Department of Defense to compensate the armed forces for the movement of equipment and resources over to Europe. That money in turn is then transferred to the defense industries, the contractors who support and provide the replacement equipment,” he said, adding that the “whole circular operation enriches everyone who is important to Capitol Hill in terms of re-election.”
MacGregor called the situation a “shell game” that enriches the military-industrial complex, the same people who help politicians get re-elected in Washington.
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“My own view is that this war in Ukraine will not end with a bang but with a whimper, that eventually we will just sort of quietly run out of resources,” he said, adding that domestic problems in the West will overshadow the conflict.
“We’ll have so many problems at home here in the United States that we’ll no longer bother with [Ukraine],” he said.
In a combination of aid packages, the US is sending roughly $54 billion to Ukraine in both economic and military aid, with approximately $12 billion of that in weapons.
At the same time, the US economy shrank 0.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, which is the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction, which technically meets one definition of a recession. Coupled with the highest inflation since 1981, the US economy faces a period of “stagflation” – defined as low growth with high inflation.
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These economic challenges, which are hurting Americans’ wallets, have led many critics to question the high price tag of funding the Ukrainian war effort while Americans struggle at home.
