As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.

It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.

Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.

All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.

  • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    The first 3 sentences are actually coherent. The last 2 too. But the first 3 don’t belong with the last 2. It’s like they’re 2 different posts.

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Calling it a schitzo-post may have been a bit off, but I legit have no other words in my vocabulary to describe how weirdly off kilter their comment is. They went from some type of criticism of elected officials working with other countries only to skip over to an entirely different thing about sister city agreements. It just kinda is bizzare overall.

      Though I sometimes pull the same shit, sleep deprivation and autism are a terrible combination when it comes to coherence.