The Danger of Naïve, Capricious Lawmakers
In the wake of the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany, the
specter of another global terrorist and aggressor immediately reared its
menacing head as it stretched chains around its “near abroad,” the independent Eastern
European countries. One by one, like dominoes, sovereign countries fell as
russian tanks crushed proud, freedom-loving nations.
This scenario is on the verge of recurring because of the
blind stubbornness of Republican senators who refuse to support President
Biden’s proposal for additional financial, humanitarian, and military aid to
Ukrainians so they not only can defend themselves but also defeat and expel the
russian cutthroats from their country.
The russian war against Ukraine, the largest armed, bloody conflict
in Europe since the end of World War Two, has not only engulfed Ukraine but is
also threatening the other former captive nations in Eastern Europe.
The situation in the U.S. Senate has perplexed and angered
Ukrainian officials, Ukrainian Americans, and Ukraine’s advocates in the United
States. After Senate Republicans choked a supplemental funding
package on Wednesday to help Ukraine in its fight against the russian invaders,
demanding tough new southern border controls and decreased immigration in
exchange, the chamber’s leading Democrat took to the floor.
Calling it “a sad night in the history of the Senate,” Sen. Chuck
Schumer (D-NY), a stalwart supporter of Ukraine, lamented the vote as a
disappointing reflection on the country, a step away from letting vladimir putin
“walk right through Ukraine and right through Europe.”
“Republicans just blocked a very much needed proposal to
send funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, humanitarian aid for innocent
civilians in Gaza, and funding for the Indo-Pacific,” Schumer declared. “If
there is a word for what we most need now, it is to be serious.”
The 49-51 vote reflected a growing trend in Congress that
has become a source of distress for the White House. When Russia first invaded
Ukraine in February 2022, aiding Kyiv was a bipartisan project. In May of that
year, a $40 billion Ukraine aid package sailed through the House with a vote of
368-57, and the Senate with a vote of 86 -11.
But as the war has dragged on, more Republican lawmakers
have turned against extra aid to Ukraine, embracing Donald Trump’s
“America first” approach to foreign policy. When the House voted in September
on a bill to provide $300 million to train and equip Ukrainian soldiers, most
Republicans – 117 members – opposed it.
The historical oddity of this GOP transformation is that
during the height of the Cold War Republicans led the charge against Soviet
Russia and in defense of the captive nations.
FOX News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane, among
others, weighing the consequences if the US stops aid to Ukraine and Russia
wins the conflict, said stopping funding for Ukraine would be outrageous.
Indeed, many foreign policy and history pundits have been
aghast by the prospect of a russian victory. They described such a possibility
as catastrophic. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged members of the
alliance to “stay the course in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s
invasion as both the United States and European Union struggle to agree on
further military aid.
“It’s our obligation to ensure that we provide Ukraine with
the weapons they need,” Stoltenberg told reporters as he arrived for a
gathering of foreign ministers from NATO countries at the alliance's
headquarters in Brussels. “We just have to stay the course. This is about also
our security interests,” he added alluding to the possibility of russian armies
swarming across Europe if russia defeats Ukraine. Stoltenberg’s message for Republicans
is that slashing Ukraine’s support will only empower China.
Many of the advocates for Ukraine are students of russian
history while others are more familiar of moscow’s behavior over the past
century. However, in both cases they warned that tsarist, soviet or “federal”
russia has not changed its belligerent behavior. Russia in all its manifestations
has been a terrorist regime that suppressed domestic dissent and spread foreign
disinformation because it could not survive if the world knew the truth.
Western leaders and diplomats have naively long tried to
find a means to work with the kremlin in hopes of evolving the system. However,
the final nail in the coffin of these false hopes has been the latest
russo-Ukraine war. The past more than 650 days has finally convinced many that putin
and russia will never change. If the United States had listened to those
hundreds of russians defectors or the liberation leaders of the post-war
captive nations or the current leaders of the former captive nations who came
to the free world over the years with powerful warnings, we would have known
long before 2022 that reforming Putin’s rotten system is a fool’s errand.
Russia will never be a trustworthy member of the family of nations. Sadly, you
see that naïve or malicious conviction today in the hallowed halls of congress
and academia.
I found an appropriate quotation about this point of view in
the book “Putin’s People” by Catherine Belton. It was expressed by Sergei
Tretyakov, former colonel in the russia Foreign Intelligence, the SVR, who was stationed
in New York before defecting.
Tretyakov observed: “I want to warn Americans. As a people,
you are very naive about Russia and its intentions. You believe that because
the Soviet Union no longer exists, russia now is your friend. It isn’t and I
can show you how the SVR is trying to destroy the U.S. even today and even more
than the KGB did during the Cold War.”
The see-saw war has become dangerously tiring for many in
the free world. Europeans, especially Eastern Europeans, are committed to
supplying Ukraine with arms. In the United States, news of the war against
Ukraine has fallen off its previously visible perch due to putin’s other war,
the one between Israel and Hamas and its kindred spirits. If you find and read
news of the war against Ukraine, you’ll see that one day Ukrainians are scoring
magnificent victories while the next day russia has successfully pushed back
against Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukraine still boasts of national unity in support of the war
effort. The unanimous belief in the ultimate victory of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine is palpable among all strata of Ukrainians. It also enjoys the support
of many near and far countries and international organizations. Most
importantly, Ukraine has prevailed as a sovereign, independent, democratic
nation. This is a major achievement – a big win despite complaints from naysayers.
As Ukraine has moved forward, russia has fallen backward. It
is now weaker politically, militarily, and economically. The free world knows russia
and putin for what they are – a terrorist country lead by a terrorist dictator.
Among former captive nations, Lithuania’s leaders have
staunchly supported comprehensive help for Ukraine and warned against a russian
victory. Ukraine urgently needs long-range weapons it needs to win the war
against Russia, Gabrielius Landsbergis, minister of foreign affairs, urged. He
said, however, that he has observed a unsafe “slowing down of urgency” in
Western support for Ukraine.
Making the case that there is “no bigger element in
Ukraine’s victory [than] weapons deliveries,” Landsbergis said there is a
“slowdown” and a “bureaucratic approach” to Ukraine’s needs.
“We have to admit that we need Ukrainian victory, otherwise,
we’ll be giving a victory to (russian president Vladimir) putin, which in turn
is a nightmare, not just for Ukraine, but for the region, for us, for Latvia,
for Lithuania, for other countries in our neighborhood, but also globally it
will send repercussions,” the minister warned.
“(We) need to go back to the urgency that we had and then
send everything that we can,” he said, specifically noting the need to fulfill
Ukraine’s request for long-range rockets that could target Russian military
supplies in the occupied regions of Ukraine.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron has also urged US
lawmakers to “lift the morale” of Ukraine by passing an aid package for Kyiv
that has become entangled in Republican quarrelling. Cameron, a former British
prime minister, told CNN during a trip to Washington, DC, that the U.S. is “the
lynchpin” of the Western coalition backing Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
“Most of the people I met on the Hill yesterday support
backing Ukraine, because it’s the right thing to do,” Cameron told CNN, though
he avoided commenting on Republicans’ demands on immigration. “This is an
investment into their success, and the worst thing in the world would be to
allow Putin a win in Ukraine – not just because that would be bad in itself,
but (because) he’d be back for more.”
In the meantime, while the Senate remains stalled on the
original legislation, the United States is sending a $175 million package of
military aid to Ukraine, including guided missiles for the High Mobility
Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armor systems and high-speed
anti-radiation missiles, the Pentagon and State Department announced on Wednesday.
In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that unless Congress
approves the supplemental funding, “this will be one of the last security
assistance packages we can provide to Ukraine.”
The Senate, especially that part which so far opposes
additional help to Ukraine, must seriously consider the globally disastrous conclusion
if Ukraine were to be defeated by russia. Life around the world would change,
life in Ukraine would change as russification would tear asunder the people’s
lives and kill those men, women and youth who won’t change.
The only moral and just path for the world and for the
Senate would be if russia were defeated and destroyed. Call your elected
officials.
