Friday, March 29, 2024

As US Pushes for Peace, Where’s the Pressure on Airbus?

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As 's invasion of flounders, President is pushing for peace. His laudable efforts – which come after billions of dollars of diverse U.S. support for Ukraine's military and refugees, as well leadership in urging nations to sanction Russia for its warmongering – are hampered by many well-known factors like:

What this means for peace is that Biden and other Western leaders must go further. And one way to easily do that is to, finally, hold the world's largest airplane manufacturers accountable for its Russian blood money.

Wait, blood money?

Yes, blood money. A recent Dow Jones market analysis says that until this year, Russia provided half of the world's titanium which is used in aircraft. Shifting this massive supply chain to other sources is difficult and time-consuming – potentially taking up to 18 months, according to a PwC analysis cited by Dow Jones.

has used this supply chain reality to defend its opposition to titanium sanctions. “Sanctions on Russian titanium would hardly harm Russia because they only account for a small part of export revenues there. But they would massively damage the entire aerospace industry across Europe,” a spokesperson said in April.

Russia exported $415 million in titanium in 2020 – not a huge part of its economy, but nothing the country, already under intense sanctions and boycotts, is probably ready to shrug at. Any money sent its way instead of investing in new supply chains funds an immoral war, risks emboldening Russia (which would likely cause even more damage to Europe's national defense than titanium sanctions!) and forces U.S. taxpayers to pay for both sides of the conflict.

Both sides?

Yup. We've sent billions to help Ukraine fight off Russia and to help evacuate refugees. What we're also doing is sending $1.5 billion to Airbus for its defense contract with the U.S. Army…a contract announced after Airbus successfully lobbied the against titanium sanctions.

Our tax dollars are literally paying to keep the conflict going. And unless something changes with Airbus, that's not likely to stop due to the bipartisan support for Ukraine.

It's time to squeeze Airbus

The one good thing about Airbus' opposition to sanctions is that it stands starkly against its decision to follow sanctions laws by not sending spare parts to Russia. Once sanctions are in place, Airbus is likely to acquiesce because it would risk its profitable contracts with the U.S. and the EU.

What this means is that it's time to squeeze Airbus as hard and fast as possible. The administration and both parties in must make this a priority in 2023 before the Russia-Ukraine conflict becomes another never-ending war.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

READ NEXT: Putin's Folly in Ukraine Draws Dark Parallels to First World War >>

Gregory D. Rohrbough
Gregory D. Rohrbough
Gregory D. Rohrbough, J.D., is a former small business lobbyist. His work has appeared in RealClearPolicy, American Thinker and the Washington Examiner.

1 COMMENT

  1. “PEACE” comes with “VICTORY”, but peace through a truce is just delaying the outcome and can change the eventual victor, which is usually why losers clamor for negotiated truce for supposed peace, but always ends up as just a delay of the final outcome. If Ukraine is not victorious, and a peace is forced on them by their supposed allies through negotiations, then in five years Russia will invade again with a rebuilt military, that the Ukraine is on the threshold of destroying, if their allies will allow them and keep supporting them with armaments, which is saving their allies’ soldiers’ lives in the future if and when Russia could defeat Ukraine.

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