"We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice, as we would show were we at war."
This quote from one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "fireside chats" may not entirely apply today, but at its heart is the same sentiment and intention we see today.
I will not dive into the politics or minutiae of the war in Ukraine. You can find as much of that as you want elsewhere.
Instead I want to talk about two historic changes. One that happened before, one that is happening now, and why we should pay attention to how they are similar.
The quote above is from what is now known as FDR's "Arsenal of Democracy" speech from December 29, 1940.
It was as much a declaration of foreign policy as it was a declaration of intentional excess. It staked a claim for the U.S. to be the on-demand arsenal of the free world - or at least for our allies.
It also may have staved off an absolute disaster in the Pacific.
Both are lessons we should take to heart today.
By the time FDR delivered his speech, the U.S. had already started investing in critical commodities and defense after nearly two decades of intense post-World War I downsizing and outright neglect. It could hardly be done overnight.
It would be years before Great Britain could host a force that could break the Nazis' Atlantic Wall... Years before Russia had the arms needed to reclaim land in the Battle of the Caucasus or end the siege of Leningrad, let alone drive to Berlin... Years before the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific pushed into striking range of Japan.
But as FDR popularized the term "Arsenal of Democracy," we were shipping what excess weaponry we had and tooling up an entire nation for war.
The U.S. is shipping massive amounts of weapons to Ukraine today. Many European nations are depleting their arsenals for this cause as well.
The current pace is wildly unsustainable. The parallels to the past are unavoidable, along with what comes next - a flood of money into long-neglected militaries for basic munitions, materials, and new technologies.
The Stinger missiles that are so prominent in Ukraine right now were out of production. Raytheon's CEO Greg Hayes has warned the world that all the donations cannot be replenished anytime soon. Large-scale production, at best, may restart next year.
As Mr. Hayes recently put it, "We've been working with the DoD for the last couple of weeks - we're actively trying to resource some of the material, but unfortunately, DoD hasn't bought a Stinger in about 18 years and some of the components are no longer commercially available."