Finland to audit whether US is actually delivering NATO-bought weapons to Ukraine

The Trump administration !!!! respected throughout the world for its honorable and dignified approach to helping its allies and just being dependable in general and making the world a better place for everyone .🤮🤑🤡🤡🤡🤡

It was a thing back during the beginning of the war, but that wasn't entirely the fault of the US government back then. It was a mix of snail mail, Hungarian/Ukrainian mob stealing the weapons mid shipment to sell on the black market. (How a few Javelins ended up on advertised for sale on TOR black market sites) Zelenesky hasn't complained about weapons deliveries not reaching ukraine anymore in a while. Im sure bits and piece here are being ~~stolen~~ lost in transit, as they were before. But the shipments are overseen by CIA and MI-5. They aren't magically vanishing as a whole like listnook seems to believe.

Democracies need evidence to act on something. Just can’t go off vibes the dear leader feels in his demented brain.

Given the Commander in Chief's history of screwing over anyone and everyone he can...

Rubio just told reporters yesterday that they will send American arms for their own use if they have a want for it because they put America first. 

Because facts trump trump.

I wonder how many are accidentally showing up in Israel. FedEx is renown for delivering to the wrong house these days

The US has already announced that PURL program weapons are being diverted to the mideast, so this will just be a verification

Oh yeah, as a Finn i know this is not going to be "lets find out if true" but "lets find out how bad it is". Also, why Finland was chosen, long track record of not lying is beneficial in international diplomacy.

Because accusations without proof are not going to get you very far

Rumor is that he's planning to take some amount of NATO-contributed money ($700mm+ IIRC) to replenish weaponry for the middle-east thing he's doing. My guess is that it's his retaliation because they openly refused to send their own troops/ships/weapons to assist.

I'd argue since he knows there's a reckoning coming once he leaves/is removed from office, he's been bunkering them for his own private army, which is what he's been accumulating all those grifting billions for in order to pay for the manpower. He'll declare the sovereign nation of mar-a-lago (or knowing him, he'll probably rebrand it as Trumptopia) and fight the US.

Going to build our own NATO with blakcjack and hookers!

As a Finn,  yeah, we might be like that... Cultural honesty is a big part why we got "Happiest country in the world" so many times.

"yo, i feel like it's possible you're just using all that stuff we bought for something else" "well as someone who's never been allowed to admit anything ever, i can definitely say we might at any time" "..."

No the main reason was to not piss off Russia. But then Russia invaded Ukraine

I can't speak for Finland, but Sweden didn't join NATO because neutrality as a defense has been a rather popular notion among many swedes since the early 1900's. Lack of transparency might have been an issue, but certainly not one of the major ones.

Nope, not even close. When you have decades, and in case of Sweden, 200 years of neutrality that has worked for you very well, you do not want to throw it away. Joining nato was 100% on the people and their will. Before Russia attacked Ukraine the polling was 70/30 against joining. 48h after the attack it was 25/75. Why? Because trust TO THE EAST WAS GONE. There used to be some trust. USSR was happy about Finland being a buffer state AND it being also a western nation. It gave them some access to the western markets and it was excellent diplomatic tool to have that 3rd, neutral party between superpowers. Helsinki was the spy capital of the world and a LOT of stuff happened between the two embassies, off the books diplomacy that sorted out things before they became a crisis. And of course.. TONS of trade back and forth, Russian materials used to make western products. Not a small detail also is not the amount of goods that were loaded into that one special train car and somehow the wife of a member of the politbyroo had brand new Levi's jeans and hi-fi stereo in the living room, to the envy to all their friends... There were many things that favored status quo in so many levels. Finland supplied luxury goods in the very official black market the very top echelons, and that kind of favor pays very well in trade negotiations, and in diplomacy, which were the same thing in USSR. After USSR, Finland was still great trading partner to have, again being more developed high tech western country as a friendly neighbor was mutually beneficial. 70 years of peace is not a small thing. Only when Russia attacked, for real, no muddy waters, no little green men but straight up war of conquest, all of that was wiped away. It became clear that they WILL ATTACK if we don't join NATO. It was not mistrust but carefully maintained and well designed balance and people simply not wanting to join: this works so lets keep it. Don't poke the bear, it might be stupid but it is big.

It was distrust that the US would use NATO to fight its own wars, not distrust that the US would straight up steal money. That's literally the kind of shit countries like Venezuela do, and the reason why nobody gives them money.

EU is already an alliance, just expand it for defence

tbh it's not nothing. The US taking a payment and then failing to deliver what's been paid will be massive news in the financial world. The thing that makes the US the prime destination for everyone's money is precisely that the US never, ever fucks with your money.

While I wouldn't wanna make assumptions before proof, Trump taking the money and not delivering is pretty much his whole story. Would be terrible and yet oddly predictable of he's extended that practice to the nation. 

now that i do agree with. Localise production to secure this mad time we are in

It still changes geopolitics and would only strengthen how Europe needs to stand on its own. This is a brilliant move from Finland.

Yeah, its called corruption.

I never get those "if we save money on x, then we could afford free healthcare" when universal healthcare is cheaper than whatever shit you currently have. You can have universal healthcare AND save money right now.

i think this severely discounts just how much the value of the US dollar comes from the global influence over trade that our military holds and regardless, the inheritors of the economic value of the military won't be regular people, lol, it's gonna be corporations and crime rings

He does like to contradict himself which means that one of his statement may be true.

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Context: [Hague Invasion Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act)

The problem is that the weapons weren’t a gift to Ukraine but purchased. Taking someone’s money and not delivering is called theft. Us companies would be forced to refund the money, which would be disastrous because then the company either goes broke, or the us pays the company for the weapons, in which case the deficit balloons even more. There’s no world where either Ukraine doesn’t get its weapons or Finland doesn’t get the money back (which they’ll purchase weapons from elsewhere) And it’ll demolish the us military industrial complex because if foreign nations refuse to buy our domestic product those companies will go out of business.

I agree that this is likely what is going to be said, but the US isn’t getting played (except by Saudi and Russia), we are. We paid for artillery to be delivered to Ukraine. Not for the US to use their own equipment to randomly start a war in Iran. We paid, and they better have delivered in a timely fashion. To Ukraine. I’m so sick of them, honestly. Edit: so Rubio seems to be confirming this is getting redirected to Iran. Great, nice knowing you Americans

But these audits aren't about aid that the US hasn't sent. They haven't sent much aid to Ukraine in two years. This is about weapons that we have bought to be shipped to Ukraine and the US has appropriated for their stupid war in Iran.

you cant put ukraine in the position to tell trump he’s a f****** piece of shit. finland is going to take the brunt of trump’s ire. kind of like rookie hazing (finland just joined NATO)

1. trump didnt plan shit for the war in iran. that’s a fact. 2. then he didnt realize our weapons manufacturers were working on shit destined for ukraine. 3. he started to run low on missiles and anti-air, but when he went to lockheed and northrup, they had a backlog and would take extra long because things were destined for ukraine. 4. he took a shortcut and redirected missiles destined for ukraine to go to israel and iran war. exactly what happened

Yeah that's almost as crazy as the claim that US navy personnel were smuggling F-14 parts and Phoenix missiles to Iran aboard a US aircraft carrier, and then when a whistleblower busted them he got villified and kicked out. Specifically, this guy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Jackson

Have you taken a look at how the US treats whistle blowers? How the armed forces treats people who report literal war crimes? You can murder a dozen people, cover it up, and commit perjury and all you get is like 15 months with time served and a dishonourable dismissal while people who make things public face life in jail.