Members of the US House and Senate, whose public approval ratings have tanked to historic lows, often appear to collide along partisan lines. But as has become painfully clear, apart from some philosophical differences mainly in terms of social policies, the reality is that Democrats and Republicans could be interchangeably called ‘Demopublicans’ and ‘Republicrats’ to illustrate how similar the two parties really are when the veneer of their highly refined and deceptive political theatre is peeled back.
And take note that the US actually has, broadly speaking, dozens of political parties. Yet even the reasonably well-known Green, Libertarian, and Constitution parties can barely get a leg up to unlock the ‘two party’ duopoly whose partisan rancour magically disappears when it comes to enriching campaign donors — and defence contractors. To be the modern-day Roman Empire and extend its legions to all corners of the earth, the US — having received the baton of world constable from Great Britain over the last century or so — must spend gargantuan sums of money. And Congress, in a debt-based money system no less, dutifully obliges, mortgaging the fragile fortunes of US taxpayers centuries into the future.
Enter the NDAA
That enrichment just skyrocketed to ever-greater heights via the authorisation of spending nearly $1 trillion on every imaginable military expense while propping up foreign militaries — which fosters the very entangling alliances that America’s Founding Fathers warned against some 250 years ago. That’s the underlying reality of the 65th annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Congress annually votes on this special legislation around year’s end — covering military salaries and benefits, various technological applications, the above-noted support of other nations’ military operations, and myriad other things.
For the record, after the House passed the NDAA by a vote of 312-112 on 10 December, the Senate approved the massive bill, which consists of more than 3,000 pages, by a vote of 77-20 on 17 December. The bill greenlights a record $901 billion in military spending for Fiscal Year 2026 — about $8 billion more than the Trump Administration requested. President Trump signed the bill into law on 18 December. But while the NDAA establishes US national defence policy and the associated spending parameters, the actual money floods in later when Congress votes on various defence appropriations bills. The final votes won’t come until spring or maybe even in the summer.
While most of those dissenting votes came from Democrats, much of that opposition represents grandstanding to give voters the impression of real political brinkmanship when, in all actuality, most of those who cast ‘no’ votes put on a good show while knowing the bill will pass, and certain highly-valued political donors and lobbyists will still get their way. The votes and views of the painfully few honest members of the legislature are lost in the shuffle, even while minor party office-seekers and office-holders are kept out of the process or strictly marginalised; otherwise, the well-oiled status quo could grind to a halt.
Ukraine
The 2026 NDAA calls for continuing aid payments to the regime in Ukraine, presided over by Volodymyr Zelenskyy — a two-bit actor turned ‘president’. He and his inner circle, who have rubbed elbows with several corrupt financiers and oligarchs, were involved in financial shenanigans as noted, for example, in the wide-ranging Pandora Papers probe in 2021. The papers revealed that Zelenskyy and close associates held offshore companies, including London property, even though he had publicly adopted an anti-oligarch image.
Nevertheless, under the NDAA’s provisions, Ukraine will receive a total of $800 million in 2026 and $400 million per year in 2027. This is done via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is designed to pay US contractors to supply Ukraine with arms and equipment. Indeed, it appears that all the Ukraine aid is calibrated to ensure US companies get exclusive contracts to supply such things.
The NDAA’s Ukraine funding also includes the Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act; the Act authorises efforts to find and return children alleged to have been forcibly taken by Russia.
However, there is a dramatically different perspective to consider.
Even Ukraine’s Kyiv Post newspaper announced on 19 June 2024 that Anna Kuznetsova, co-chair of [Russia’s] Parliamentary Commission on Investigation of the Crimes Committed by the Kyiv Regime Against Minors:
… presented a 182-page report that addresses Kyiv’s so-called crimes against children under ten chapter headings that cover: murders, abductions, crimes against sexual integrity, recruitment, use of child soldiers and drug trafficking, among others.
The Kyiv Post added that her report followed a Financial Times investigative report from 12 June 2024 that blames Russia and details its “abduction of at least four Ukrainian children”.
Yet, Kuznetsova, whose remarks are posted on the Russian Duma’s website, maintains that Ukraine is the real culprit when it comes to child abductions and trafficking.
For example, she noted:
Today [19 June 2024], the Parliamentary Commission on Investigation of the Crimes Committed by the Kiev Regime Against Minors presents the results of its year-long work in accordance with the law. We talked to more than a thousand eyewitnesses … collected evidence, and verified the information we received.
Referring to the alleged murder, wounding and mutilation of children by Ukraine, she added:
In total, since 2014, the Investigative Committee of Russia has opened almost 4,500 criminal cases, 2,800 of them are shelling of territories. 24,340 children were recognized as victims. About 300 children were killed. Thousands of children were injured. Among them, 11 children were killed and 22 were injured as results of mine explosions. Since the beginning of 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attacks on civilian targets have increased by 50%. This year, 27 children were killed and 78 were injured.
She also stated:
From 2014 to 2022, 1,600 children disappeared from the occupied territories of Donbass. Since the beginning of 2022, the structures of the Kiev regime have taken about 65,000 children from the territories of Donbass and Novorossiya. Nobody knows where many of them are now. Facts of child abduction were recorded in Lugansk, Kremennaya, Donetsk, Artemovsk, Kherson, Slavyansk, Melitopol, Berdyansk and other cities and villages … The Kiev regime has created an entire kidnapping industry. Children are being sold on the darknet or on the Ukrainian-Polish border.
Furthermore:
The Elena Zelenskaya Foundation is also involved in that, and the Foundation is registered in the United States, as well as the Save Ukraine Foundation, and logistics are provided by Western private military companies.
So, the overriding question is whether the US should partner at all with a demonstrably corrupt and undemocratic regime that is an outgrowth of the 2014 CIA-abetted revolution that overthrew Ukraine’s elected Russian-leaning leader and enabled the unlawfully installed new leadership to align with the NATO-EU axis and play the sole ‘victim’.
The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based journal, pointed out a different twist in the story about the NDAA money for Ukraine:
It’s a symbolic win for Kyiv and Ukraine’s supporters who are worried President Donald Trump is going to completely end US support as part of efforts to end the war with Russia.
Syria
The NDAA fully repeals sanctions on Syria that were carried over from its leadership under Bashar al-Assad — who by all indications was more democratic than the current transitional leader, a shadowy character formerly named Abu al-Jolani, who assumed the name Ahmed al-Sharaa.
A suspected Israeli agent in some quarters, he is credited with leading the long rebel offensive that ultimately sacked Assad in late 2024. Al-Sharaa is in league with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, described as a Syrian Islamist militant-political group that evidently evolved from the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabot al-Nusra.
Al-Nusra reportedly rebranded in 2017 to unite various factions, though it’s still designated by some nations as a terrorist group. It now collects tolls and provides civic services to present itself as a legitimate authority to gain international recognition and, of course, foreign aid.
The Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda was the primary culprit behind the 9/11 attacks, according to the US Government’s official yarn, yet the US consistently supported al-Qaeda-associated insurgents throughout the Syrian civil war that started in March 2011 and ended in December 2024.
This foreign aid provision requires Trump to verify twice a year that the interim Syrian Government is following through on combating terrorism and drug trafficking while respecting minority rights and seeking peaceful relations with its neighbours. If the report is negative, the President can consider new sanctions.
Israel
Israel’s military actions are under increased international scrutiny due to its savage nonstop bombings of Gaza. But Israel, like Ukraine and Syria, still gets stellar treatment under the NDAA — even amid growing international restrictions on arms sales to it.
Israel is set to receive some $500 million for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow-3 missile-defence systems, extended cooperation on anti-tunnelling, and technology for countering drones. The creation of emerging technology programmes in AI and cybersecurity, which include robotics and quantum computing, also is in the NDAA regarding US-Israel cooperation.
Finally, and perhaps most distressing, there’s a provision that requires the US to continually assess and close gaps in Israel’s defence capabilities caused by international arms restrictions and possibly help Israel counter arms embargoes brought about by other countries that object to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
That provision is especially troubling, as it means US taxpayers will have to cover Israeli expenses for any weapons or money it would lose due to foreign nations taking a stand over Israel’s continuing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.
Europe, Britain, Etc.
The 2026 NDAA also restricts the withdrawal of US service members positioned in Europe, which seemingly contradicts Trump’s indications that America would to some degree stop policing the world and focus more on the Western Hemisphere.
However, while the NDAA would bar the Department of Defense from reducing the number of US forces deployed or permanently stationed in Europe to under 76,000 for more than 45 days, further reductions could still happen if the Pentagon can certify that NATO allies are consulted and the drawdown is in America’s ‘national security’ interest. Notably, the NDAA also blocks the US European commander, a four-star general, from surrendering the NATO supreme commander title.
The NDAA impacts Great Britain mainly through strengthened military-technology cooperation, especially under AUKUS — the 2021 trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK, and the US. Its stated purpose is to counter China’s influence, thereby enhancing Indo-Pacific security.
AUKUS focuses primarily on Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines (Pillar I) and joint development of advanced military technology like AI, cyber, and hypersonics (Pillar II). It’s Australia's largest defence project, involving U.S. submarine rotations and the eventual sale of Virginia-class subs, along with joint design of new SSN-AUKUS submarines, aiming for deeper integration and technology sharing.
Regarding the UK, there are measures in the NDAA for facilitating technology transfer for nuclear subs and defence systems, while also creating strategic dependence between the US and UK.
The NDAA also intends to reinforce transatlantic security by ensuring a US troop presence in Europe, supporting NATO, and streamlining arms sales — while also pushing the UK’s burden-sharing and aligning its defence policies closer to US priorities for shared strategic goals. British industry and defence planning will be impacted accordingly.
China
Finally, the NDAA seeks to counter China’s influence by improving supply-chain security; phasing out China’s technology in military systems (optics, advanced batteries, etc.), and, among other things, expanding oversight on US investment in China’s sensitive tech sectors — while beefing up US deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and establishing new offices to counter China’s influence worldwide.
Overall, the apparent goal is to reduce US economic and technological reliance on China in areas considered critical to US national defence.
Trump’s Executive Orders Codified
Taking the long view, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) summarised the matter this way:
This year’s [NDAA] helps advance President Trump and Republicans’ Peace Through Strength agenda by codifying 15 of Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the [southern US] border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos.
All told, the US leviathan is bigger than ever. To be sure, securing the US border, nixing woke policies, and juicing up the US industrial base can bring some needed benefits in terms of addressing genuine national security concerns and boosting jobs and the overall economy by beefing up that industrial base, among other perks in such a massive bill that covers so much ground.
Furthermore, Trump, via certain policies and personnel, has, to a notable degree, parted ways with the usual globalist foreign policy clique, often drawn from the ranks of the Council on Foreign Relations and other internationalist, world government-promoting institutions, though it’s by no means clear that Trump is the committed ‘America First’ torch-bearer he claims to be. By financially propping up the militaries of corrupt regimes, the question is whether the NDAA under Trump could represent a different form of globalism which constitutes a threat to peace that’s more serious than whatever ‘threats’ this defence bill seeks to counter.
Saner Voices
Forgotten is the trenchant worldview expressed by the non-interventionist US Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana (1882-1975) who famously stated on 31 December 1940:
Remember, if we lend or lease war materials today, we will lend or lease American boys tomorrow. Last night we heard the president [FDR] promise that there would be no US expeditionary force, but we received no promise that our ships and sailors and our planes and pilots might not at some time within the near future be cast into the cauldron of blood and hate that is Europe today.
He added:
The cost of this war [WWII at the time] will come out of the millions of poor people, the common folk of the world, who will toil for generations to pay the cost of destruction. War inevitably means back-breaking debt, blighted lives, bedeviled futures. War means the end of civil liberties, the end of free speech, free press, free enterprise. It means dictatorship and slavery …
Main image: Majority Whip Tom Emmer from Facebook
