Exactly! Why can we fund defense projects with no cap on budget that might never become operational but we have to pick and choose which areas of science we're

Exactly! Why can we fund defense projects with no cap on budget that might never become operational but we have to pick and choose which areas of science we're going to put money towards? That's the whole point: nobody is glad we spent the money. Surely instead of inventing an almost unimaginably expensive jet, we could have spent that money on less ambitious jets that are many orders of magnitude cheaper? Ukraine doesn't have any F-35s and yet they're holding their own against Russia. Why is there a double standard?