In the most famous presidential farewell address since George Washington gave the original in 1797, President Dwight Eisenhower warned his countrymen in 1961: "In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
The surprising success of new House Speaker Mike Johnson in brushing aside President Biden's wrap- around $106 billion emergency aid bill and instead passing a stand-alone $14 billion package just for Israel—with some Democratic support—has thrown down the gauntlet before the White House and commenced what is certain to be a highly contentious battle within Congress, principally revolving around the issue of Ukraine.
Jealously guarding its constitutional power of the purse, the House since the inception of the Ukraine war has pressed the administration for specifics on how the huge sums already allocated (now in excess of $100 billion) are being spent and what measures of accountability have been imposed. The White House has steadfastly refused to provide these answers much less give any indication of its goal or intended endgame.
The House's pursuit of answers resonates with one of the most hallowed phrases in the American political lexicon: “Follow the Money.” Two recent articles, though not intended specifically as investigative or financial journalism, nonetheless provide some illuminating facts and insights relative to where and how well that hefty $100 billion is being spent.
The first (Wall Street Journal 10/29/23) is “Wars push up demand for weapons, sparking fears of shortages.” It reports on a recent meeting of the NATO Industrial Forum in Sweden, which drew 800 attendees made up of government, military, and industrial leaders. Their agenda focused on serious concerns that there won't be enough “artillery shells, and other weapons, to keep both allies (Ukraine and Israel) in the fight.”
Industry representatives—General Dynamics, Lockheed, Boeing, et. al.—were unsurprisingly very interested in how the administration plans to divide the spending in the $106 billion package. Jasen Aiken, the CFO of General Dynamics, which has 2,000 employees in Europe and is the world's biggest producer of artillery shells, felt that item was the “one to highlight.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's top military aide described the 155mm artillery shell as “one of the most coveted objects in the world,” noting that whereas before the Ukraine war each shell cost $2,100, they now go for $8,400 each.
Defense Department acquisitions chief Bill Plante reported that the US has signed $25 billion in defense contracts, and urged European governments to sign more contracts with US defense industries, in a plea that resonated well with Senator Mitch McConnell's recent statement that the “Ukraine war was good for the US economy.”
The second article is a cover story from Time magazine (10/30/ 23) titled ''Nobody believes in our victory like I do: Inside Volodymyr Zelensky's struggle to keep Ukraine in the fight” and written by Simon Shuster, who authored last year’s glowing portrait of Zelensky when he was chosen as Time’s Man of the Year.
The lengthy, well-researched piece is generally laudatory to the Ukrainian president, but in the course of several interviews in Kiev with Zelensky's top advisors, Shuster includes some vignettes quite different from the usual media depictions of what is actually happening in the war-torn country. Three insights are particularly striking.
1. In light of staggering casualties that have decimated the army, Ukraine's war aims seem utterly unrealistic. Speaking in confidence to Shuster, one of the President's closest aides said of Zelensky: "He deludes himself. We're out of options. We're not winning. But try telling him that. "
2. Despite the draconian conscription policies- the average age in the Army is 43 - Morale is collapsing. A senior military officer confidentially told Shuster that even if the West delivered all the weapons they promised, “we don't have the men to use them.”
3. Under pressure from the US regarding corruption in his government, Zelensky has fired most of his Cabinet as well as every regional recruitment director for selling draft exemptions, but corruption throughout the country remains uncontrollable. When Shuster expressed some doubts about these corruption stories, one of Zelensky's chief assistants told him to shut off his recorder and said “Simon, you're mistaken. People are stealing like there is no tomorrow.”
Much has changed in the world in the six decades since President Eisenhower's prescient admonition, but much—including human nature—has not. In the heat or fog of war, vast sums of money will move through the hands of the military-industrial complex, inevitably creating opportunities for large profits. Similarly, when vast sums of money are sent to faraway places it is also inevitable that significant amounts of it will end up in unclean hands.
William Moloney is a senior fellow at Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute who studied history and politics at Oxford and the University of London and received his Doctorate from Harvard University.