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Military Industrial Complex and Neo-Cons Getting Rich Off 'Aimless' Proxy War in Ukraine

© Sputnik / Valeriy MelnikovA residential building in the Kievsky district of Donetsk after shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Large-calibre shells pierced through the concrete walls.
A residential building in the Kievsky district of Donetsk after shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Large-calibre shells pierced through the concrete walls. - Sputnik International, 1920, 30.03.2023
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The US military-industrial complex and its neocon "tools" in Congress and the American government are using the Ukraine conflict for self-enrichment while having little if any idea what happens to the billions worth of NATO arms in the Eastern European conflict zone, Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist, told Sputnik.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul stated at the March 29 committee hearing that out of the $113 billion in US aid for Ukraine, around 60% is going to American troops, workers, and to modernizing US stockpiles, while just 20% of the funding is going directly to the Kiev regime in the form of direct budgetary assistance.

"The Military-Industrial Complex needed a new war after the conclusion of the Afghanistan debacle, and Ukraine provided it with the perfect opportunity," said Michael Shannon. "The money that is not going to Ukraine is going to domestic defense contractors, domesticated think tanks, various NGOs and the rest of the parasite neocon class that drives foreign entanglements in the US. Without a foreign conflict, someone might begin to question just what it is that the Pentagon does with the billions of dollars it receives," Shannon stated.

Ukrainian servicemen fire with a D-30 howitzer at Russian positions near Artemovsk, eastern Ukraine, on March 21, 2023 - Sputnik International, 1920, 29.03.2023
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McCaul highlighted at the March 29 hearing that he conducts the Ukraine aid oversight not to question the importance of support for Kiev, but to incentivize the Biden administration and Ukraine to use funds from Congress "with the highest degree of efficiency and effectiveness." The congressman and his peers insisted that the US has little to lose and much to gain from arming the Kiev regime. According to them, the weapons supplies to Ukraine cause problems for the Russian military on the one hand, while also providing an opportunity to reinvigorate the US military-industrial complex.
"I think that 'reasoning' is obscene. In exchange for his weapon's testing platform, McCaul and these other idiots have driven Russia into the arms of our greatest international rival, China. This alliance poses a real threat to the US economically and politically," Shannon noted.
Ukrainian servicemen prepare to fire at Russian positions from a US-supplied M777 howitzer. - Sputnik International, 1920, 30.03.2023
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McCaul also claimed that the funds are disbursed to Kiev following verification that the money is spent on approved items and activities. He went on to say that all funds also are subject to external, third-party monitoring by Deloitte. Additionally, the third-party watchdogs are reportedly cooperating with Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance to review its monitoring, transparency, verification, and reporting systems and procedures, according to the congressman. However, in April 2022, the American media quoted US officials and Pentagon sources as saying that Washington has few ways to track its arms sent to Ukraine. Multiple international agencies, including Interpol and Europol, have repeatedly raised concerns over the weapons smuggling problem in Ukraine. In October 2022, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova revealed that every month over $1 billion worth of NATO’s weapons earmarked for Kiev end up in the hands of militants from the Middle East, Central Africa and Southeast Asia. Earlier, the US-funded 2021 Global Organized Crime Index dubbed Ukraine one of the largest arms trafficking markets in Europe.
"McCaul is a neocon tool of defense contractors," said Shannon. "Even the incompetent General Mark A. Milley [the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] admitted in testimony that the Pentagon only has a very narrow window on how our weapons and aid is being used. The taxpayers of the US deserve a complete and thorough audit of where the aid and weapons are being used. They also deserve to know exactly what the war aim of the alliance with Ukraine is. What will constitute success or victory? Right now we have no idea and I'm thinking the Pentagon doesn't either," Shannon remarked.
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