TEHRAN (Iran News) – It seems the U.S. is the real winner of the Ukraine-Russia war as the country has earned a whopping amount of money because of this crisis while other countries in the world have been badly hit by the consequences of the war.
Although the U.S. economy is in a turbulent condition and the inflation rate in the country has hit the highest in the past decade, this country has earned a lot in the Ukraine war either politically or economically.
The British economic newspaper Financial Times in an article claimed that the U.S. oil producers have reaped some $200b windfall from war in Ukraine and one may ask the winners of the war are oil companies and it has nothing to do with the government and the nation but everybody knows well that American oil companies spend money during the election campaigns and they along with arms manufacturers are major supporters of the governments.
The Financial Times report reveals just small portion of the U.S. companies’ windfall at the expense of economic crises in Europe and in other continents.
The result of a research shows that sales of U.S. weaponry and other military hardware to Europe are skyrocketing, thanks to the persisting Western-backed conflict in Ukraine, with European countries vowing to expand their arsenals by $230 billion.
In many European countries over half of the recent military expenditures went to American arms manufacturers, with Norway devoting 83 percent to US purchases, the UK 77 percent, Italy 72 percent and the Netherlands spending 95 percent on US-made weapons in the period from 2017 to 2021, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), with total European arms imports jumping 19 percent during that time frame from the previous five years.
“This is certainly the biggest increase in defense spending in Europe since the end of the Cold War,” said Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, as quoted in a Saturday report by Yahoo News.
According to the report, since the Ukraine conflict began in late February, countries in the European Union have pledged to beef up their arsenals by some $230 billion, with Germany alone planning to modernize its military to the tune of $100 billion this year.
The U.S. arms industry, which produces and exports more weapons than any other country — selling over 39 percent of the estimated $210 billion annual global arms sales from 2017 to 2021 — has been the biggest beneficiary, it added.
“Many European countries have plans to increase their military spending very significantly, and to increase their purchases of arms as part of that,” said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Program as quoted in the report. “And in some countries they’re accelerating” purchases originally slated for later this decade.
Even before the war, according to SIPRI, European arms imports from 2017 through 2021 were up 19%. “They’re growing at a rapid clip,” said Hartung. The amount of European arms deals being negotiated since February, he said, “has almost doubled from last year. And we’ve still got a few months left.”
“This is all very much driven by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the realization in Europe that defense stocks had been run down quite considerably over the last 30 years,” said Bond. He added that one reason so many countries turn to U.S. arms manufacturers is the American defense industry is so large, countries don’t have to wait for cutting-edge arms to be developed. Another reason, countries in East and Central Europe “want to keep the U.S. on their side and show that they attach value to the Transatlantic alliance,” including to NATO. “And supporting American defense manufacturers is one way in which you can do that.”
According to William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, since President Biden took office, European countries account for some $33 billion of arms “offers,” as the initial stage of arms negotiations is called, with $21 billion in deals on the table since February. Although some sales have not yet been officially contracted, Hartung told Yahoo News that the $21 billion estimate is assuredly low as it represents only government-to-government deals, not direct commercial sales, which are more difficult to track.
By far, the most popular high-end item from the US in Europe is the American F-35 combat airplane — with Finland putting in an order for 54 of them in 2020, while Poland ordered 32. Another 71 planes were ordered by Norway, the Netherlands and the UK, and even neutral Switzerland ordered three dozen of the fighter planes in September, for over $6 billion.
Those kinds of big-money sales “cause a lot of tension” with European arms manufacturers, said Hartung, since across Europe, the American F-35 often outsells European-made fighter jets.
Based on what arms buyers have told him, Wezeman said the F-35 has more bells and whistles than domestic models such as the Eurofighter Typhoon or Saab JAS 39 Gripen.
The U.S. is also politically a winner in this war as it has cemented its ties with Europe for more dominance on these countries and uses them for its policy of bullying other countries as we see Ukraine has turned into a pretext for putting pressure on Iran and Russia, and Washington resorts to any pretext to increase this pressure.
So one cannot expect the war in Ukraine to come to its end very soon because as long as the war prolongs the U.S. can sell more arms and milk other countries as well as Ukraine, and feed the arms manufacturers in the U.S.
On Friday the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would fund T-72 tanks sent to Ukraine, deepening its involvement in the war in defiance of repeated warnings by Russia.
The refurbished T-72 tanks are part of a $400 million military assistance package by the U.S. that also includes armored vehicles, drones and a budget to refurbish air defense missiles. It will bring the Biden administration’s total commitment to Kiev to nearly $19 billion.
Unfortunately Ukraine has fallen in the trap of the U.S. and it acts like a pawn of the Washington for dealing with countries which are in opposition of the U.S. unilateralism and for this reason Kyiv has toughened its stances against Iran and fans the flame of conflict with Tehran while it is wrong and it is just helping the West and mainly the U.S. to increase the pressure on the Islamic Republic and Russia, and we can say the U.S. is the winner of this game and Ukraine is the main loser of it while other countries in the world feel the hit of this game.
