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Comment by whandl | Hacker News Reader

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“Programmed” seems like a foolishly reductive (not to mention arrogant) way of describing other countries’ politicians and political decisions, given the hot war happening on EU’s doorstep.

a brutal as hell "hot war" that was churning out 1200 casualties a day for weeks

and whose instigator is ideologically aligned with "Dugan-ism" which calls for Russian dominance of Europe (aka "Neo-Eurasianism")

EU has every reason to be greatly worried about this

> Moreover, the premise of Hegseth is a lie. The EU has spent more on Ukraine aid than the US

Nope. In military aid his claim is correct, you can see it from your own source you linked:

https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-s...

Only if you include refugee aid then the EU amount exceeds the US, but that has no bearing on the outcome of the war (this is where most of the EU funding goes to). What matters to win a war is military aid, and the EU has provided a fraction of what the US has given so far.

I'd say he's trying to pick a fight by saying such inflammatory things.

The Kiel Institute divides aid into three categories: military, financial, humanitarian. By the end of 2024, Europe and the US had delivered roughly the same amount of military aid, and Europe had committed to a lot more in the future:

               US   Europe
  Delivered    64    62
  Committed    66   100
  Total       130   162

Deliveries of military aid from both sides closely followed the same growth line throughout 2024. In some months, the US was ahead in total delivered military aid; in others, Europe was. See Figure 1 at https://www.ifw-kiel.de/fileadmin/Dateiverwaltung/Subject_Do...

The second largest category was financial aid, which is also vital for the war effort, because much of it has been provided for rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and ensuring resilience against further attacks:

              US   Europe
  Delivered   47    57
  Committed   50   131
  Total       97   188

Humanitarian aid was fairly insignificant compared to other categories:

              US   Europe
  Delivered    3   16
  Committed   13   13
  Total       16   29

All figures in Euros, rounded to the nearest billion.

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