Ukraine

$85 Billion buys a lot of taclights and tac glasses.

Within the intelligence and defense communities in the 1980s and into the 1990s a new trend of convergence emerged as the military began to experiment with intelligence-like activities, with member of the CIA experimenting with military-like activities.84 Specifically, the CIA began to use lethal force “in circumstances in which diplomatic and political constraints made overt military force unpalatable.”85 This included proposals from within the National Security Council (NSC) to conduct lethal intelligence operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as other terrorist targets throughout the world.86 A particularly well-known example of the convergence of military and intelligence functions using the secret budgets occurred in the supplying of weapons to the Afghan mujahideen fighters in the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979 to 1989, known as “Operation Cyclone.” Representative Charlies Wilson (D- Tex.), who served on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee added $40 million to the budget of the CIA specifically for a Swiss-made 20-mm Oerlikon antiaircraft gun by 1983.87 William Casey, then the Director of the CIA, used leftover FY 1984 DOD appropriations to boost the funds available for covert action in Afghanistan.88 At the time, DOD possessed tens of millions of dollars in leftover funds, which Rep. Wilson pushed toward the CIA’s Near East Division in the FY1985 budget, bringing the total amount for covert action in Afghanistan to $250 million, as much as all previous years combined.89

On September 25, 1986, mujahideen fighters fired five Stinger missiles at three Soviet MI-14 Hind helicopters, causing them to drop from the sky.93 This example of “Black Budget” appropriations remains a key example by which covert action programs can impact foreign policy without direct public scrutiny of the use of public funds. Funding for Operation Cyclone skyrocketed to $630 million by 1987.94 Recall also that overall U.S. intelligence spending peaked at the end of the Cold War in 1989.95

In stating their position, the Commission balanced the questions of national security with operating a government in an open society, stating: Intelligence agencies … pose unique difficulties when it comes to public accountability. They cannot disclose what they are doing to the public without disclosing what they are doing to their targets. Yet they are institutions within a democracy, responsible to the President, the Congress, and, ultimately, the people. Where accountability can be strengthened without damaging national security, the Commission believes it should be.99

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/briefingpapers/files/72_-_swab_-_black_budgets.pdf

They made a movie about Charlie Wilson called Charlie Wilson's War. POOTWH requested an $85B "black budget." So yea, Jack Ryan. We're 7 days in.