In August, the U.S. government decided to send another three billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine. This brings the total amount of U.S. military aid to Ukraine to over $13 billion during the Biden administration.
While the people of Ukraine have the right both to defend themselves and to determine their own future, the involvement of the U.S. in this war in any way signals that the U.S. ruling class is determined to challenge any expansion of Russian imperialism. In other words, it’s a fight between imperialist powers over markets, territories, and natural resources.
The question is, how far will the two ruling classes of the U.S. and Russia go in their conflict? Will they drag out the conflict for years, inflicting endless suffering on the people of the Ukraine? Will they worsen food shortages for the entire world, driving up food prices in a world already stalked by famine? Or, will they ignite a nuclear catastrophe for all humanity by using nuclear power plants as shields and bargaining chips? This war, in other words, is being fought for their benefit, not ours. And not only are the people of Ukraine paying the worst price in the most direct way, but the rest of the world pays the indirect costs of this grinding conflict. And the fact that Russia started this war doesn’t absolve the U.S. ruling class from its leading role in creating the permanent war economy.
While the rest of us struggle to make ends meet while doing the work to run society and to produce the weapons and human lives that fight their wars, the bosses profit off of our labor and our deaths. The infamous military-industrial complex has profited hugely since the “war on terror” began more than twenty years ago, and it is doing so again today as conflicts both current and predicted demand more high-tech weapons.
Of course, the people of Ukraine have a right to defend themselves against Russian aggression. But that doesn’t make U.S. imperialism a defender of anyone’s freedom.
