An amendment meant to replenish stocks of U.S. weapons sent to Ukraine could lead to a U.S. ground war with Russia.
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies, The Progressive Magazine
If the powerful leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senators Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Jim Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, have their way, Congress will soon invoke wartime emergency powers to give the Pentagon more leeway to build up even greater stockpiles of weapons. The amendment is supposedly designed to replenish the weapons that the United States has sent to Ukraine, but a look at the wish list proposed in this amendment reveals a different story.
Reed and Inhofe’s plan is to tuck their wartime amendment into the FY2023 National Defense Appropriation Act that is scheduled to pass during the lameduck session before the end of the year. The amendment sailed through the Armed Services Committee in mid-October and, if it becomes law, the Department of Defense would be allowed to lock in multi-year contracts and award non-competitive contracts to arms manufacturers for Ukraine-bound weapons.

But if the Reed/Inhofe amendment is really aimed at replenishing the Pentagon’s supplies, then why do the quantities it calls for vastly surpass those that have been sent to Ukraine?
Let’s do the comparison:
- The current star of U.S. military aid to Ukraine is Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS rocket system, the same weapon U.S. Marines used to help reduce much of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, to rubble in 2017. The United States has only sent thirty-eight HIMARS systems to Ukraine, but Reed and Inhofe plan to “reorder” 700 of them, with 100,000 rockets, which could cost up to $4 billion.
Recent Posts
Washington, DC, Residents Protest Against Trump
September 7, 2025
Take Action Now Several thousand protesters march to oppose Trump’s troop deployment Justice Department data shows violent crime at 30-year low…
‘Shameful Assault on Human Rights’: Trump Sanctions Palestinian Orgs That Called for UN to Investigate Israeli War Crimes
September 6, 2025
Take Action Now The former executive director of Human Rights Watch said Trump’s “answer to Israeli atrocities is to censor reporting on…
Hegseth Doesn’t Rule Out Regime Change In Venezuela, Suggests More U.S. Strikes On Boats Are Coming
September 5, 2025
Take Action Now When asked if the goal was regime change in Venezuela, Hegseth said that was a “presidential decision” and added that “we’re prepared…
Secretary Kennedy Doesn’t Care About Long COVID Patients
September 5, 2025
Take Action Now Reckless funding cuts have dealt a significant blow to ongoing research, derailing NIH-funded clinical trials on antivirals and…