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.