[Goose]

An honest question.  Why is US aid so important?  The EU is already giving more and obviously they have a much more direct interest in the conflict.  Given that many countries in the EU underspend on their NATO commitments, is it totally irrational to ask them to foot the bill here?

https://app.23degrees.io/view/tAuBi41Lxv..._csv_final

Maybe the answer is they just won't.

FWIW, I would fund the Ukraine war every day....

If it were just a matter of money, it might be reasonable to expect the EU nations, especially Germany, France and the Netherlands to pick up most of the tab. However, it is also a matter of capability. The US has a far larger "stock" of things like 155 mm ammunition. The EU made this "big deal" about how they were going to supply a million 155 mm shells to Ukraine last year. It turns out they couldn't do it. They have problems with manufacturing capability (as does the US) and their stocks are much smaller. The Europeans can't simply take it out of stock. Bad as our manufacturing is, it seems the EU has even more limited capacity.

The US military simply has a lot more "stuff", lots of which we periodically replace anyway. Much of the armament used in the world comes from the US. Germany has Rheinmetall who makes lots of good stuff. They claim they can supply lots of stuff immediately. Then, when push comes to shove it turns out they "can't quite do that".

The fact that many EU nations did not spend their requisite 2.0% of GDP for military purposes has indeed put the EU armament factories in a bad squeeze over the years. As in the US, there have been lots of mergers and acquisitions. However, since these are all independent countries, they don't want their arms to depend on the countries around them. The want to spend the money "at home". This wrecks economy of scale. Many of these countries (Italy for instance) have taken on a lot of NATO responsibilities (since the US 6th fleet basically ceased to exist). However, their economies are simply too weak to allow them to spend 2.0% of their GDP on weapons. Germany was kind of exempted from the requirement by the costs of reunification and the doctrine of "Don't scare the Bear". The German politicians liked that just fine and never reversed the trend.

The bottom line is that IMO it is going to take both the US AND the EU doing all they can to supply Ukraine's needs. Ukraine is supplying the bodies. Every body else is supplying the bullets. As your chart shows, the EU has promised lots of financial aid. Not sure how much of that is being delivered though.

[Goose]

An honest question.  Why is US aid so important?  The EU is already giving more and obviously they have a much more direct interest in the conflict.  Given that many countries in the EU underspend on their NATO commitments, is it totally irrational to ask them to foot the bill here?

https://app.23degrees.io/view/tAuBi41Lxv..._csv_final

Maybe the answer is they just won't.

FWIW, I would fund the Ukraine war every day....

If it were just a matter of money, it might be reasonable to expect the EU nations, especially Germany, France and the Netherlands to pick up most of the tab. However, it is also a matter of capability. The US has a far larger "stock" of things like 155 mm ammunition. The EU made this "big deal" about how they were going to supply a million 155 mm shells to Ukraine last year. It turns out they couldn't do it. They have problems with manufacturing capability (as does the US) and their stocks are much smaller. The Europeans can't simply take it out of stock. Bad as our manufacturing is, it seems the EU has even more limited capacity.

The US military simply has a lot more "stuff", lots of which we periodically replace anyway. Much of the armament used in the world comes from the US. Germany has Rheinmetall who makes lots of good stuff. They claim they can supply lots of stuff immediately. Then, when push comes to shove it turns out they "can't quite do that".

The fact that many EU nations did not spend their requisite 2.0% of GDP for military purposes has indeed put the EU armament factories in a bad squeeze over the years. As in the US, there have been lots of mergers and acquisitions. However, since these are all independent countries, they don't want their arms to depend on the countries around them. The want to spend the money "at home". This wrecks economy of scale. Many of these countries (Italy for instance) have taken on a lot of NATO responsibilities (since the US 6th fleet basically ceased to exist). However, their economies are simply too weak to allow them to spend 2.0% of their GDP on weapons. Germany was kind of exempted from the requirement by the costs of reunification and the doctrine of "Don't scare the Bear". The German politicians liked that just fine and never reversed the trend.

The bottom line is that IMO it is going to take both the US AND the EU doing all they can to supply Ukraine's needs. Ukraine is supplying the bodies. Every body else is supplying the bullets. As your chart shows, the EU has promised lots of financial aid. Not sure how much of that is being delivered though.