How Soon They Forget, Especially...
When it isn't their money spent and their own lives at risk.
Last weekend, the House of Representatives passed a funding bill for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan; a majority of democrats voted for the appropriation. A large number of republicans did, too, but some took great offense, so much so... short-sighted and memory-challenged as they seem to be, they're threatening to vote a "motion to vacate" to oust Mike Johnson, their fellow republican Speaker of the House.
Their "didn't-get-our-way" tantrums aside, the funding bill passed by the majority will provide $61 billion for the defense of Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel. and $8 billion for Taiwan. That's a lot of money; it's almost a sixth of the Defense Department's annual budget, but it's money well spent considering the disastrous alternative. That alternative is manifest in a couple of recent disasters from which America should have learned some very painful lessons, those lessons being...
After 9/11/2001, the United States chased Osama bin Laden into the mountains of Afghanistan and stayed behind to rid the country of the Taliban with the expectation that the Afghan military would be a competent, reliable partner. It wasn't. Over 20 years, America sent 775 thousand troops to Afghanistan; the estimated cost, not including the 2,500 American lives lost, was $2.3 trillion.
Soon thereafter, in 2003, the United States entered the Second Gulf War with the expectation that the Iraqi military would be a competent, reliable partner. It wasn't. Over the years, America has sent nearly 500 thousand troops to Iraq... thousands are still stationed there. The estimated cost, not including the nearly 4,500 American lives lost, has so-far been nearly $2 trillion.
The lesson that should have been learned from Afghanistan and Iraq is that direct American military involvement anywhere results in incredibly costly disasters for everyone involved. The price to pay were America to enter the wars in Ukraine, Israel, or Taiwan would dwarf the cost incurred in Afghanistan and Iraq; the number of American lives lost would be incalculable because, if American troops are sent to Ukraine, Russia might very well keep its promise to start slinging nukes!
And so... when viewed with an eye on the preceding lessons so painfully learned, the $95 billion that'll be going to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is a bargain. All three allies are competent and reliable... they're fighting their own wars (Taiwan is preparing for an almost inevitable Chinese invasion) without putting a single American soldier's life at risk.
Speaker Johnson, by shepherding the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan funding bill through treacherous political waters... including a hostile caucus of his own party, may have become very unpopular amongst his critics. He may pay for it with his job, but his would be a casualty that pales by comparison to the disastrous alternatives; his political courage may have spared America from being taught the same very painful lesson all over again...
One which, apparently, far too many have already forgotten.