Do American lives matter? Yes, of course. That’s why I don’t want our soldiers on the front lines fighting Russians and risking WWIII.
But it turns out we don’t need to, since Ukrainians themselves are brave, organized and resourceful, and against everyone’s predictions, they have pretty much halted all major Russian advances within 2 months. All they need from us is weapons and ammunition.
How do we measure whether it’s worth it to us? Here’s one way to actually quantify the return on investment:
—A Javelin missile launcher system + one Javelin missile costs $178,000. (Sounds like a lot, right? Why don’t we abandon Ukraine and spend that money here at home fixing our roads and bridges???)
—Well, a Russian T-90 main battle tank costs $2.5 million. Actually one of the cheaper tanks out there. But still orders of magnitude more expensive than a Javelin system.
—On top of that, Javelins are easy to learn how to use. Ukrainian army reservists and volunteers can be trained on them in a day. “If you played a video game, you can use it.”
https://m.economictimes.com/news/defence/javelin-anti-tank-missile-symbol-of-ukraines-resistance/articleshow/90262377.cms
—Compare that with the extensive training it takes a crew of Russian soldiers to become proficient at operating a main battle tank. Each T-90 carries a crew of 3.
—So: If we can help a Ukrainian blow up a Russian T-90 and its crew using a single Javelin missile, then haven’t we won the lottery?
—Feel free to run similar calculations with all the Russian helicopters and airplanes that are getting wrecked by cheap shoulder-fired missiles. Given the cost of aircraft, you would get even more dramatic results.
Bottom-line? Arming Ukraine is, dollar-for-dollar, one of the soundest national security investments we could ever make, in crippling Russia’s ability to menace our allies in Europe.
If we abandoned and let Ukraine fall instead, then we would *still* have to spend extra money reinforcing Poland, Romania, the Baltic States etc.
Caption this Meme
