nafod wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:47 pmWe are getting dollars of foreign affairs impact for the pennies we provide them. Best deal ever. Smart move.
We are paying much more than direct costs of weapons and training.
Let's use the concept of Expected Loss, with round numbers.
Assume that a limited nuclear exchange would cost the US $100,000,000,000,000 in direct losses on a first strike. Five years of US GDP is pretty reasonable for the loss of two or three big cities.
Just inventory, buildings, roads, bridges and such. No insurance payouts for "act of war" but someone has to make good on the losses.
1/10,000 risk of a nuclear exchange per year.
$1x10^14 dollars x 1/10,000 risk of a limited nuke strike per year = $10,000,000,000 per year of "infrastructure" Expected Losses. As long as we're have been over there, which is 2014, we are talking a total of $80,000,000,000 expected loss in total.
This ain't "cheap" Nafod.
nafod wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:47 pm We have not declared war.
The US has not declared war since 1945, Nafod.
We have had token numbers of troops on the ground in Ukraine since 2014. All west of Kyiv.
We put a battery in Kyiv's backpack. We wound Kyiv up. We gave them false promises of aid. Now the Russians are stomping all over them.
Would Ukraine have been dominated by Russia?
Is Mexico dominated by the US?
Don't like yourself too much.