The Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress published a draft of the country's military budget for fiscal year 2021 in the amount of $ 694.6 billion. This is $ 1.3 billion more than in the current fiscal year. The document was presented by Pete Wiskolsky, Chairman of the Defense Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on the Appropriations of Democrats.
According to the project, it is planned to spend $ 162.3 billion on personnel of the US Armed Forces. It is estimated that the number of active servicemen will be 1,351,500, which is 12 thousand more than this year. In reserve there will be another 802 thousand military.
Congressmen are proposing to allocate $ 140.1 billion from the treasury for the purchase of weapons and military equipment. These funds, in particular, are planned to be spent on the acquisition of 91 fifth-generation F-35 fighter-bomber, 12 F-15EX aircraft, helicopters, as well as nine naval ships.
The Pentagon allocated $ 104.6 billion to research and development projects of the Pentagon in the draft budget.
In addition, the document provides for an increase in military assistance to Ukraine by $ 25 million - up to $ 275 million. This money will go, including training personnel, weapons, logistics support and intelligence assistance.
The document also contains a number of prohibitive initiatives. In particular, we are talking about the fact that the US government cannot spend “any amount from the funds provided under this law in the form of appropriations or in any other way”, in particular, “taking any of the oil resources of Iraq or Syria under US control. ” It is also forbidden to "equip any military structure or base" to ensure the permanent deployment of the US Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The procedure for erecting barrage structures on the US-Mexico border is also regulated in the new draft defense budget. According to the document, the president cannot spend money intended for military needs for these purposes.
“(Congressional Supervision. - RT ) prohibits the spending of the defense budget on the implementation of the president’s initiative to build a border wall at the expense of our military. In addition, all unused funds redirected to the construction of the border wall in fiscal year 2020 require returning to the original accounts and spending them for the purposes for which they were initially allocated by Congress, ”the press release on the draft defense budget says.
The document also limits the "direction of the existing armed forces to the southern border."
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- © Mark Wilson / Getty Images / AFP
In addition, the bill contains a ban on testing nuclear weapons, "which is not necessary", as well as on the transfer of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, "in order to prevent advanced American technologies from being vulnerable to Russian missile systems."
It also speaks of the need to give other names to military installations, which now bear the names of figures of the Confederate army.
“(Congressional Supervision. - RT ) allocates $ 1 million to the army to rename buildings, facilities, roads and streets named after the leaders and officers of the Confederation, because the army has the largest number of objects to be changed,” the press release said.
“Against the head of the White House”
As Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Center for Military-Political Research at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a conversation with RT, this draft military budget "is not intended to defend the United States, but to dump Trump."
“Everything is absolutely logical here. The House Congressional Appropriations Committee consists mainly of members of the Democratic Party. The bill was also presented by a democrat. Representatives of the Democratic Party at the expense of anti-Trump initiatives want to show voters the inconsistency of the current head of the White House, ”the expert emphasized.
A similar point of view is shared by the director of the US Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the USA at Moscow State University, Yuri Rogulev. According to him, many of the proposals of the Democrats, "to put it mildly, do not correspond to the position of Trump."
“In fact, they are directed against the head of the White House, because they cross out what the American leader was striving for and continues to do so. Many of these amendments are used by Democrats as an instrument in the internal political struggle against Trump. The battles of the Democrats and Republicans regarding the military budget are always one of the most pressing issues in the political struggle. And on the eve of the presidential election, this aspect becomes even more relevant and attractive, ”the analyst said in a conversation with RT.
Recall, a week ago, US President Donald Trump already stated that he would veto the bill on the US defense budget if it contains a provision on renaming military bases. Trump wrote about this on his Twitter page.
I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) Of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2020Batiuk called noteworthy the fact that the intra-American political processes associated with the "anti-racist" protests were reflected in the draft defense budget of the Democrats.
“Some of the military facilities in the United States really bear the names of officers of the Confederate army - the army of slave owners who fought to maintain slavery in America. In particular, US military bases in the United States received such names as a kind of compromise between leading American parties back in the 19th century. However, now a compromise, but of a different kind, is unacceptable to Trump, and he said this, ”the expert said.
The US president has repeatedly advocated the freezing of military aid to Ukraine, since, in his opinion, "Europe is doing nothing" on this issue.
- US President Donald Trump
- © Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
The reason for this measure was called by the administration of the President of the United States the weak progress made by Kiev in the fight against corruption, while Trump’s opponents attributed this step to pressure on Kiev to investigate the activities of Democrat and candidate for the upcoming presidential election, Joe Biden, in Ukraine.
However, last month, the Pentagon announced plans to provide Ukraine with military assistance in the amount of $ 250 million, according to a statement on the website of the US military. It is noted that Kiev allegedly managed to tighten internal controls to reduce corruption. At the same time, Ukraine is described in a statement by the US Department of Defense as "a key US partner at the forefront of strategic rivalry with Russia."
According to Batiuk, the increase in aid to Ukraine should be considered in the framework of the idea of the Democrats about maintaining the US global presence in the world.
“And all this, of course, in contrast to Russia, which members of the Democratic Party regularly accuse of meddling in US internal affairs,” the analyst said.
At the same time, it was no coincidence that the Democrats included restrictions on financing the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico in the draft defense budget, Batyuk noted.
“This issue is one of Trump’s main activities, which he spoke about during the 2016 election campaign,” Batyuk said.
According to him, the Democrats prepared an initiative against the construction of the wall in order to please their potential voters and harm Trump.
“US migrants and members of their families are part of the nuclear electorate of the Democratic Party, for them the construction of this facility has always been extremely undesirable. They always opposed this. Now the Democrats deliberately mentioned this issue, although it is not directly related to national defense, ”the analyst said.
As for the control of oil fields in Syria and Iraq by the US military, Trump announced his position on this issue back in October 2019. Then he said that he would leave part of the US military in the SAR to protect oil fields from militants of the Islamic State terrorist group *.
"Loosen at all costs"
Yuri Rogulev also said that the Democrats now, due to the proposal of a number of new initiatives, "want to pull the rope to adopt the defense budget to their side."
“Draft budgets are prepared by both Democrats and Republicans in different houses of Congress. There may be differences between these projects, and often they are global in nature. Ultimately, both options come down to a common denominator, and the final version is sent for signature to the US president, ”the expert explained.
- U.S. President's Empty Stand
- Reuters
- © Jim Young
Batiuk, in turn, added that the discussions of the Democrats and Republicans around the defense budget for fiscal year 2021 "indicate a total split in American society."
“The moderate majority of both US parties, which made it possible to find mutually acceptable compromises, practically disappeared. At least on issues such as national defense. Now the Democrats are all strictly subordinated to the only goal - to discredit and weaken Trump at any cost, without thinking about the consequences, ”the analyst noted.
Experts also predict that Trump will oppose the initiatives of the Democrats.
“After all, he expects to make maximum use of some aspects of the defense budget to mobilize his supporters. Amendments to members of the Democratic Party can go through the House of Representatives, but Republicans constitute the majority in the Senate and most likely will not allow such initiatives to be implemented, ”Rogulev said.
Commenting on the increase in US military expenditures, he also noted that this trend is “a common thing” for the United States.
“In the entire history of the existence of this state, Washington has only reduced military spending several times,” Rogulev stated.
Batiuk, in turn, pointed out that in the context of the socio-economic crisis in the United States, the need to increase the defense budget is incomprehensible to most ordinary Americans.
“The issue of preserving the American military-political presence in the world, for which the country spends enormous amounts of money, has begun to raise even more questions,” the expert concluded.
* “Islamic State” (ISIS, ISIS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.