The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East.

The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.

An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up U.S. military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, researchers said in findings first provided to The Associated Press. That includes the costs of a Navy-led campaign to quell strikes on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthis, who are carrying them out in solidarity with the fellow Iranian-backed group Hamas.

The report — completed before Israel opened a second front, this one against Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, in late September — is one of the first tallies of estimated U.S. costs as the Biden administration backs Israel in its conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and seeks to contain hostilities by Iran-allied armed groups in the region.

  • basmatii@lemm.eeEnglish
    34·
    12 hours ago

    A generic war isn’t genocide, and you people don’t get to coopt the word genocide just because Israel took away your spotlight.

    More over… It’s not our problem. We are not the world police. We suck at that job, given we tend to kill 10-20x more civil loans than whoever were supposedly there to kill.

    Yeah it sucks Ukraine is getting invaded again it did that a thousand times before I was born it’ll do that a thousand more times at least after I die. You know what also sucks? Homelessness exclusively due to corporate greed. The former we can’t solve, the latter we can and should before temporarily stopping a different country from invading yet another different country.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      72·
      12 hours ago

      A generic war isn’t genocide,

      Wow, generic wars have hundreds of thousands, by Russia’s own admission, children being ethnically cleansed from a region and deported to the invading country to shore up their own flagging demographics? Generic wars have kill lists of political figures, including LGBT advocates, distributed to the invader’s forces? Generic wars have civilians with their hands tied and shot in the back of the head en masse in occupied territories?

      Let me guess - you’re an Uyghur Genocide denier too, right?

      Yeah it sucks Ukraine is getting invaded again it did that a thousand times before I was born it’ll do that a thousand more times at least after I die.

      Ah, yes, nichevo.

      • basmatii@lemm.eeEnglish
        33·
        11 hours ago

        You keep getting off topic because I don’t care about your pet topic.

        I don’t care, even a little about myanmars genocide. Or the genocide in sudan. Or whatever Russia is doing or whatever gobbledyfuck the third, the warlord of east genovia is doing to puppies and children.

        Maybe if I hadn’t struggled my entire life while watching people get dumped by the US government, sent to the ME to do war crimes, and luckily come back home only to kill themselves after they learned how pointless their sacrifice was, may e id care about your pet topic of a sovereign country that is not us and is not funded by us invade another country that again is not us.

        Maybe if I hadn’t watched multiple of my family members die of preventable diseases thanks to not having access to healthcare even after “Obamacare” supposedly solved that problem, id care enough about your pet topic to support sending billions to be wasted on yet another war.

        I haven’t been to a doctor in my adult life. Id love to go, but the copay on my free insurance is half a weeks pay, before any tests. Id love to spend that but I’ve never paid less than half my monthly wage in rent. The money isn’t there for me to give a fuck anymore. We spent 20trillion on Afghanistan and Iraq, theyre same shit holes they were, with a couple million fewer civilians and more birth defects per capita than anywhere else in the world.

        Your pet topic wouldnt end any differently.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          62·
          11 hours ago

          I don’t care, even a little about myanmars genocide. Or the genocide in sudan. Or whatever Russia is doing or whatever gobbledyfuck the third, the warlord of east genovia is doing to puppies and children.

          Thanks for admitting to being indifferent to genocide. Keep cheering on Palestinian genocide as well, I’m sure you don’t care about that either. That’s about the level of moral fiber I expected from someone who denies the Ukrainian and Uyghur genocides.

          • basmatii@lemm.eeEnglish
            34·
            11 hours ago

            I do care about Palestinian genocide as we are funding that and id like that to stop.

            I do not care about your pet genocide or whatever genocide China is committing.

            We are not funding that.

            It’s a simple concept, take care of your citizens before sending off your children and money to some random country.

            • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
              62·
              11 hours ago

              I do care about Palestinian genocide as we are funding that and id like that to stop.

              It’s a simple concept, take care of your citizens before sending off your children and money to some random country.

              So the only reason you care about the Palestinian genocide is money? Well, I have good news for you, then, as foreign aid, even Israeli foreign aid, is an incredibly small part of the US national budget. You can rest easy in that there’s one more genocide available for you to play apologist for with a ‘clean’ conscience!

              • basmatii@lemm.eeEnglish
                23·
                11 hours ago

                You really had to twist all sorts of ways for that interpretation.

                My money was s going to commit genocide, I do not want to commit or aide in commiting genocide, therefore in your mind, it’s about the money in that case.

                It’s truly fascinating how you people think.

                • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  52·
                  10 hours ago

                  My money was s going to commit genocide, I do not want to commit or aide in commiting genocide, therefore in your mind, it’s about the money in that case.

                  It’s a simple concept, take care of your citizens before sending off your children and money to some random country.

                  This you?

                  You’re not very good at pretending to be a Very Concerned Citizen™

                  • basmatii@lemm.eeEnglish
                    23·
                    10 hours ago

                    Yes, now reread it in context. I do not want to send money to your shitty country to stop a genocide we had nothing to do with. I want to stop sending money to a country that is committing genocide with said money so I am no longer responsible for aiding said genocide.

                    These are not contradictory statements, child.