by
Samuel
Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg
via
Getty
Images)
When
I
was
reporting
from
Ukraine
this
fall,
I
learned
to
sleep
through
the
air
raid
sirens.
The
local
authorities
sounded
them
every
time
any
kind
of
munition
was
headed
remotely
in
our
direction,
even
though
most
often
the
Russian
drones
and
missiles
veered
off
to
targets
elsewhere
before
impact.
When
Russian
forces
eventually
did
massively
bomb
Lviv,
the
sound
that
woke
me
in
the
early
morning
hours
was
not
what
I
expected.
It
was
nearby
machine
gun
fire.
Groggily,
I
rubbed
my
eyes,
and
wondered
if
I
was
still
dreaming.
We
were
a
long
way
from
the
front.
Could
the
Russian
army
have
pushed
through
hundreds
of
kilometers
overnight?
Lviv
was
well
within
range
for
bombardment
from
the
air,
but
in
my
exhausted
state
I
couldn’t
puzzle
out
what
there
would
have
been
to
shoot
at
with
machine
guns
during
an
air
attack.
Shorty
after
the
automatic
weapons
rattled
to
life,
periodic
explosions
started
sounding
in
every
direction.
Later,
my
cousin
Evan
would
explain
to
me
how
Ukrainian
forces
had
figured
out
a
number
of
ways
to
more
inexpensively
dispatch
a
cheap
Iranian-designed
Shahed
drone
than
to
hit
it
with
a
multimillion-dollar
Patriot
missile.
That
explained
the
gunfire.
When
Russia
first
invaded
Ukraine,
almost
all
of
the
so-called
experts
predicted
the
much-smaller
country
would
fall
within
days.
More
than
four
years
later,
Ukraine
is
still
holding
its
own.
The
Ukrainians
proved
far
more
resourceful
than
almost
anyone
gave
them
credit
for.
Ukraine
has
received
a
great
deal
of
financial
and
material
assistance
from
the
United
States
and
other
allies.
This
is
not
a
giveaway,
but
a
tremendous
investment
that
has
already
paid
dividends
for
America.
This
investment
will
continue
to
pay
off
handsomely
well
into
the
future.
To
their
great
credit,
while
still
facing
their
own
dire
threats,
Ukrainians
have
offered
to
share
the
technology
they
have
developed
and
the
talent
they
have
curated
over
nearly
half
a
decade
of
war
to
help
their
friends
abroad.
Ukraine’s
military
has
already
sent
teams
of
experts
armed
with
the
latest
in
inexpensive
defensive
technology
to
assist
Gulf
nations
in
protecting
themselves
from
Iran’s
clouds
of
Shahed
drones.
“We
are
ready
to
help
those
who
help
us,”
said
Ukraine’s
president
Volodymyr
Zelensky.
Yet,
because
the
United
States
of
America
is
run
by
a
79-year-old
toddler,
the
country
that
needlessly
started
this
war
in
Iran
has
rejected
Zelensky’s
attempt
to
help
the
U.S.
defend
its
troops
more
easily
and
efficiently.
Going
back
on
his
promise
of
just
a
week
prior
to
take
help
in
Iran
from
“any
country”
willing
to
provide
it,
President
Donald
Trump
most
recently
said
the
“last
person
we
need
help
from
is
Zelensky.”
The
American
president
made
these
comments
as
part
of
an
unhinged
rant
about
how
he
still
wishes
to
hand
over
large
swathes
of
Ukraine
to
Russian
dictator
Vladimir
Putin.
The
United
States
military
is
spending,
at
a
minimum,
a
billion
dollars
a
day
on
this
war
in
Iran.
That
does
not
account
for
the
knock-on
effects
of
the
war
on
the
global
economy.
In
some
instances,
the
financial
bloodletting
includes
igniting
a
U.S.
Patriot
missile
that
can
cost
the
U.S.
Army
as
much
as
$4
million,
or
a
THAAD
interceptor
that
costs
more
like
$15.5
million,
to
destroy
a
Shahed
drone
produced
by
Iran
for
as
little
as
$20,000.
Meanwhile,
the
national
debt
sits
at
a
record-high
$39
trillion.
With
Trump’s
policy
portfolio
undeniably
set
to
keep
the
U.S.
budget
deficit
growing
indefinitely,
it
appears
our
national
leadership
has
no
interest
in
addressing
America’s
spending
decadence
anytime
soon.
Our
president
is
wasting
billions
he
doesn’t
have
to
fight
a
war
he
didn’t
have
to
fight.
Rejecting
help
now
from
a
proven
friend
to
not
only
rein
in
costs
but
to
better
protect
American
lives
is
compounding
recklessness
with
insanity.
Ukraine
has
proven
itself
a
true
friend
to
the
United
States.
For
Trump
to
sneer
at
its
generous
offer
of
needed
military
assistance
only
demonstrates
his
inability
to
meaningfully
engage
in
a
genuine
friendship.
It
is
a
tragedy
that
the
American
taxpayer
will
continue
to
lose
billions,
and
that
the
American
military
will
continue
to
sacrifice
lives,
to
pay
for
Trump’s
petulance.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].