I read an article in Zero Hedge today that confused me, greatly. The title of the article is: Is The United States Losing Its Control of Ukraine? If you have been even semi-conscious during the last 467 days, you must be a little perplexed also. Since Day One when Putin invaded on February 25, 2022, after having spent months massing troops and materiel on the border, we were not permitted to ask questions lest we be outed as shills for Vladimir Putin, evil despot. If question asking is now permitted, I ask, “Did the United States ever have control of Ukraine?”

“Is the United States Losing Its Control Over Ukraine” begins:

In the very early days of the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was open to negotiating a peace. A proposed peace could have ended the war before tens of thousands of Ukrainians died and Ukraine’s infrastructure was devastated, on terms that satisfied Kiev’s goals. But the United States pressured Ukraine to go on fighting in pursuit, not of Ukraine’s goals, but of larger American ones.
Putting an end to Ukraine’s negotiations with Russia, State Department spokesperson Ned Price remarkably said, “This is a war that is in many ways bigger than Russia, it’s bigger than Ukraine,” and insisted that Ukrainians go on fighting and dying for “core principles.”

There are some, on the Left and Right, who are not “warmongers” but “war-enablers”, such as Ned Price, Senator Lindsey Graham, Biden National Security Jake Sullivan, and 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley:

Nikki Haley is not only a Neo-Con Lunatic, she’s also a moron.

Blah Blah Blah Freedom Freedom Freedom

“A win for Ukraine is a win for all of us.”

If you still fall for this crap, you’re an idiot. pic.twitter.com/zKU9FNiGG0

— The Columbia Bugle (@ColumbiaBugle) June 5, 2023

Not only FREEDOM, but we are helping Ukraine preserve DEMOCRACY. I personally like living in a Constitutional Republic. If Ukraine is a Democracy, it is a troubled, grifty kind of Democracy. More like a Thugocracy. While there is no absolute proof that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is laundering money, but Seymour Hersh and Tucker Carlson believe so and I have not seen any calls for accountability from anyone in the United States government, despite the tons of cash we have sent to that country.

More:

One of the key goals of the Biden administration is to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity. That is Joe Biden’s promise to Ukraine. But a second key goal is to avoid being drawn into a direct war between NATO and Russia. That is Joe Biden’s promise to Americans. A recent wave of Ukrainian attacks on the territory of Russia—not Donbas or Crimea, but the internationally recognized territory of Russia—threatens that promise and threatens the security of Americans.
Ukraine has long promised “not to target Russian territory with weapons provided by the West.” They recently reiterated that promise, saying British supplied long range Storm Shadow cruise missiles “will be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory and not inside Russia,” and when they provided the United States “flat assurances” that F-16 fighter-bombers won’t be used inside Russian territory.
But Ukraine did not keep those promises. In pursuit of their goals—understandably, since the U.S. insisted they postpone those goals and go on fighting the Russian military in pursuit of American goals—they have crossed the red line of U.S. limits and conditions on the use of American-supplied weapons and struck inside Russian territory. This defiantly independent military strategy is increasing the danger that the United States and NATO could get drawn into a war with Russia.
On May 3, two drones were disabled over the Kremlin in what Russia views as an attack on Russia and an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine denied involvement, insisting, “Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.” Zelensky said categorically, “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities.”

Well, I don’t believe Russia regarding the Kremlin drone attack. But the Biden Administration keeps reneging on what they won’t send to Ukraine. Although we will be sending tanks and F-16’s to Ukraine, but the Ukraine soldiers won’t be trained up on them anytime soon.

I don’t know what makes anyone think the United States ever had any control in Ukraine. Volodymyr was trying, in his address to Congress, to sound grateful, but he was just acting for the benefit of the folks at home. Don’t you think?

This is a foreign policy cock-up of the first order. Many, many dead Ukrainians. Dead Russians. About $113 billion and climbing in money and materiel and much of it disappearing into that large Ukrainian washing machine, with the U.S. taxpayers on the hook.

This is what happens when weak and feckless politicians are selected for office. They give strongmen like Putin permission for a “minor incursion” and 467 days later money has vanished, people are dead and foreign policy experts are wondering if the U.S. has lost control. Just sad.

Featured Image: U.S. Army DEVCOM/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons