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-lighght- t1_j9w7sph wrote

Reply to comment by BigHardThunderRock in Biden official says there’s no evidence that Ukraine is misusing US assistance by fghfghhh

Everything that questions the liberal narrative is a GOP talking point apparently.

All that you're doing is building walls between people, making it seem like there is truly only two camps of belief. It's ineffective and does more harm than good.

Consider debating the points made instead of using gotcha catchphrases.

Edit: I got a little fired up. It's just that I don't fall within either of the traditional party lines, and people irl have used "that's a republican talking point" to shut down some valid points/questions I've had. My comment stands but I wanted to explain why it seems I took it personally.

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BigHardThunderRock t1_j9xx7n1 wrote

Well, think of it this way. This isn't some academic fact-finding mission. There's intent behind it, especially since this is a Washington official.

>“Up until this point, we don’t have any evidence that U.S. assistance is being misused or misspent but, again, the key is not resting on anybody’s good will or virtue,” Power said in response to a question posed about Ukraine’s history of corruption. “It’s checks and balances, the rule of law, the integrity of officials.”

>Ukraine has struggled with corruption throughout much of its time as an independent country since separating from the Soviet Union in 1991, but Ukrainian officials have taken steps in recent years to institute reforms to limit corruption, most recently under the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

>The USAID leader said Ukraine has seen a strengthening of its institutions fighting corruption since 2014, when then-President Viktor Yanukovych was forced out of office amid widespread protests over his close ties to Russia.

>She also explained that the U.S. Government Accountability Office launched a new initiative to help Ukraine expand its auditing institution, which she said will be needed for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

>...Zelensky removed some officials in his government last month as part of a push against corruption. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov also shuffled some of his top staff earlier this month over corruption allegations in his department.

This isn't some new article. It's the same parent article.

So to counter "we don’t have any evidence that U.S. assistance is being misused or misspent" with a "doesn't matter if there's no evidence, it's happening!" and an article about a thing that's already addressed in the parent article like it's something new, that's the gotcha.

To grab at points without evidence, that's not "just having a question."

At the end of the day, we're just random posters on a content aggregator site. So get as fired as you want until the next coffee break. lmao

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-lighght- t1_j9yl15n wrote

>So to counter "we don’t have any evidence that U.S. assistance is being misused or misspent" with a "doesn't matter if there's no evidence, it's happening!"

I didn't mean to imply that I'm certain it's happening. If I had to bet, I'd say that some of it is being misused. How much, I couldn't tell you. But any time large amounts of money are involved will multiple levels of administration and bureaucracy, some of that money is misused. Whether some of the money is legit being stolen, or some of it is being wasted to meet a quota (like in the US military), there is always some sort of bullshit going on when there is enough people, and enough money involved.

I'm not certain it's happening, but I would bet that it is in some form. Also, no evidence doesn't mean it's debunked.

But thank you for explaining your views on it, truly.

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BigHardThunderRock t1_j9z07j2 wrote

Unfortunately, corruption isn't a debunked or not issue; it's a forever struggle.

For this article, it's whether or not there's anything actionable at least for the politician as they make their case for aid packages. If they did find corruption, then there needs to be an immediate plan to address it, tweaking the package if needed.

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