Joe Biden is the vote for foreign aid- and thus the vote for America

Article by Luiz Gandelman, TPT Staff Writer and Jewish Caucus Chair

Representative Barbara Lee of California was the only member of Congress to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF). Roughly 60% of Democrats voted against the US invasion of Iraq (in contrast to 1% of Republicans). Democratic opposition to war, and notably American boots on the ground, runs deep. Close to 1 million Service Members have perished overseas since the founding of the United States, notably involving very few actually perishing on US soil since the Civil War, with the exception of Pearl Harbor. Alongside this, these endless, deadly wars have left millions of Veterans, heroes of our country, disabled, homeless, in poverty, and with PTSD and other permanent illnesses. As if the human cost isn’t convincing enough, well over a trillion dollars have been spent on warfare alone (not including exorbitant peacetime military spending). The cost of war is tremendously high, and the human cost is even higher.

From Nicaragua and Panama, to Iraq and Cambodia, and from Vietnam and Afghanistan, to Syria and the Dominican Republic, countless nations have been invaded, overthrown, or carpet-bombed by the United States for no apparent reason, killing over 4.5 Million civilians, alongside hundreds of thousands of American Servicemen in the process. These interventions and wars were wholly unjustified, especially from the angle of the United States’ involvement.

Some wars and interventions, however, notably those in Korea, Kosovo, and Kuwait, were well beyond justified, as they were aimed at stopping genocides, protecting American allies, and ensuring evil actors would not dominate the world. 

This creates a tricky conundrum. What makes a war justified or not? For some, it’s the cost, for some it’s the death toll, and for many, it’s the context. Regardless of justification, every single war costs America billions upon billions of dollars and tears apart American society. All of this proves one direct point: foreign aid is the way forward. Instead of deploying American troops and costing us millions of lives and billions of dollars, aid packages can have a similar impact.

Had the Kurdish rebels not been defunded by Donald Trump, Assad would have potentially lost the Syrian Civil-War, freeing Syria from his grip of death and destruction, proof that a lack of aid is deadly. On the contrary, American funding is what allowed Israel to fight off a brutal invasion in 1973 by the Arab League and their Soviet-backed allies, showing how funding can help. This is still seen today: American aid has helped Ukraine not lose land in over a year, and it has ensured millions of Israelis are always protected by the Iron Dome defense system. 

The loss of this much-needed funding, moreover, is perilous. Recently, Republicans have stopped backing Ukraine funding based on sensationalist Yellow-Journalistic coverage of the war, and a shifting right-wing sympathy to Putin due to Donald Trump’s concerning friendship with him. For the first time in over a year, Ukraine lost a city, Avdiivka, needing to pull back due to a low supply of ammunition, something aid from the US could have prevented outright. 

In a time of so much crisis globally as now, promoting American values and fighting off tyranny should be our utmost priority, and that means supporting American allies abroad, each and every single one of them, from Ukraine to Israel, and from Taiwan to Kurdistan.

Donald Trump has called to defund Ukraine and NATO, encouraged Russia to attack American Allies, and weakened alliances between the US and its global partners. As Democrats, we cannot allow our party to do the same. 

Those on the Left who oppose funding to Ukraine and Israel are falling down the Republican rabbit-hole of thinking funding for these nations is somehow detracting from American spending domestically. As a matter of fact, the amount of money spent on foreign aid is almost completely offset by the alternative cost of wars and unnecessary defense costs that we would spend in wartime, not to mention the absurd human cost that would have transpired in that case, and the lasting impact, both social and economic, on society and most importantly on our veterans and their families.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, has consistently been an ardent supporter of all of America’s allies. He has sent large and necessary aid to Israel in times of crisis, worked to build diplomatic bridges between nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia, been a loyal supporter of Ukraine in their fight against tyranny, and championed democracy globally, while also making powerful and meaningful change domestically. 

In a time of conflict like now, with dictators like Putin and Xi looking to expand their territories, and terrorist groups like Hamas and the Houthis looking to attack American allies, foreign aid has never been more necessary. If we want to avoid exorbitant human, social, and economic costs of future wars, and want to continue upholding our values abroad, foreign spending is crucial, and is something we must all fight for when we vote, as it is the right thing to do not just for America, but for the world as well. 

We must have the backs of our allies abroad, and in 2024 the vote for doing just that is a vote for America’s own future as well. That vote is for one of the best supporters of our allies, President Joe Biden.