Money, Munitions, Mistakes

The United States military sends assistance to Jordanian troops to fight the forces of ISIS.

Sammi Tester, Editor of Student Opinion

What happens when ISIS gets stronger and the United States wants to resupply Jordan with munitions? The U.S. president deploys troops overseas. With the recent death of a captive Jordanian pilot, Jordan will be receiving more assistance in fighting the Islamic State from our military.

The support we are giving to Jordan comes in many shapes and forms. According to Reuters, the United States will be sending precision bombs, aircraft parts, and other munitions to Jordan, but won’t discuss the time they will be delivered. In addition, the United States will be assisting Jordan with $1 billion annually until 2017, which increased from $660 million yearly. The Washington Post says that, since 1951, we have exceeded $13.8 billion in assistance for Jordan. The Washington Post also states that hundreds of Jordanian troops go to military training in the United States.

I’m here questioning Washington’s decisions, however. The United States had roughly $18 trillion in debt, so what does the government do? Give Jordan more money every year and more costly munitions. The military will also be sending more troops to Jordan to help out. This is a financially risky move and the government is toying around and I don’t think it’s the best idea there could be. It appears, due to the history of our national debt, that we are only going further into debt if we keep giving Jordan more money as well as supplying them with these expensive munitions.

A better idea would be to keep giving Jordanian troops the same amount of money and sending them more munitions, which they can use in combat. This plan seems to be more cost-effective and Jordan still gets support from the United States. Jordan also gets more supplies directly given to them along with money to help them support their soldiers. However, since I’m not in the government, I don’t know if there is solid reasoning behind the tactics in place.