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It never fails to amaze me. Our Pravda press will always find a way to cover Biden’s bottom and point their finger at the GOP. The New York Times is suggesting that GOP infighting could be to blame for the Russia/Ukraine response confusion. It couldn’t possibly be Biden’s own words that might muddle our response. Oh no. If we appear not to have a united front on what our response might be, it’s the internal squabbling of the Republican Old Guard and the New. From the article:
“Driven by a steady diet of pro-Russian or anti-interventionist rhetoric from the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Republican right has become increasingly vocal in undercutting not only U.S. foreign policy but also the positions of the party’s leaders.”
Yes, there are some real divisions within the Republican congressional members on how or even if we should wade into the Russia/Ukraine standoff.
Hear me out: what if we skip the parts where 5,000-10,000 US troops die, we spend $2 trillion we don’t have and we leave defeated and instead just import 2 million Ukrainians? #UkraineCrisis @JackPosobiec pic.twitter.com/b3lFGoqdIy
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) January 26, 2022
Frankly, I understand Paul Gosar’s point. We can’t even keep our own damned boarder protected and yet we are going to risk our young men to defend Ukraine’s? Do we really think Biden, as Commander in Chief, is up to lead a war? He gets lost going to the bathroom! Do we think General Mark Milley has what it takes to win a war? Or is he still leafing through his copy of White Fragility?
"General" Mark Milley wants to understand "white rage"? —well he's gonna get a big lesson SOON. @joebiden is said to be getting ready to YELL his head off at him. A lot of other WHITE PEOPLE are mad too. And Black People. Latino. Asian. Actually–AMERICA is FURIOUS with him pic.twitter.com/w4nhZnXjsM
— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) August 15, 2021
This whole thing reeks of Wag the Dog. We are just 10 months away from what could be the biggest rebuke of a President in modern history. Biden’s numbers are in the toilet and seemingly swirl downward every day! The latest Rasmussen poll continues to trend ever downward:
The cynical side of me wonder’s if Biden isn’t hoping to foment further aggressions. Even as he tries to walk back his remarks from January 19th, our allies are not sure if they can trust the U.S. to support them. In fact, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, flew to Germany in an attempt to smooth ruffled feathers:
This after our dim-witted leader uttered the following:
“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera,”
“But if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the force they’ve massed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine.”
I think my favorite part of the NYT’s article is the following paragraph:
“…but more concerning are worries that the right could prompt U.S. allies to question Washington’s resolve. On a conference call on Wednesday with Ukrainian Americans, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, expressed alarm about “the rhetoric of the far right.”
Really? you think that a handful of Republican isolationists are what our allies are concerned with? Yeah, I don’t think so. Maybe, maaayyybeee, our allies are a bit squeamish about having our CiC be the one to cover their “six.” After his abysmal decision making in Afghanistan, what rational world leader would want to partner with Joe Biden?
It’s a tough call. I think most folks support the idea of America siding with Ukraine. There are a lot of geopolitical upsides to ensuring Ukraine remain independent and whole. My local news-site spells it out clearly:
Steven Seegel is a Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and said whatever action America and Europe take sends a message about how far the West is willing to go to defend democracy.
“The greater concern is not just security, but actually a long-term insistence on the rule of law and democracy, and a civic order,” he said. “If there are no values left, if Americans won’t defend that and Europeans won’t defend that, you have to wonder who will.”
This debate of how or if we should get involved in the Russia/Ukraine mess reminds me of my old high school World History class. My teacher and I would regularly shut down the classroom in our debate over Reagan v Mondale. But he did something so clever, it never left me. Every time he talked about war, he would pull his wallet out of his back pocket and hold it in the air. “War equals money!” I think of this as our economy is poised for dark days ahead.
I hope that our strongly worded message to Russia keeps us from the brink of war. There is no good time to have a war, but there are worse times. We cannot afford a land war. Our national debt is staggering. The President, houseplant that he is, has already proven that he is incapable of making strategic decisions. Our allies are not convinced we will adequately support them, should the need arise. All of that is on Joe Biden. Any GOP infighting we have means less than nothing, no matter how much the NYT tries to spin it.
Featured image: “Russian tank T36 / Ruský tank T36” by Martin.Hefner , modified
AF JAG retired says: Tucker Carlson has gotten too full of himself; he was more interesting back when he wore a bow tie.
We helped place Ukraine in its current weak position by talking the Ukrainians into giving up their nuclear weapons and later their heavy conventional armaments, assuring them we would support their territorial integrity.
You can argue that the officials who did this had no authority to bind the US. What you cannot argue is that Putin also wants the Baltics (formerly part of the USSR) back in Russia and Poland, Hungary and the other former Warsaw Pact states back in his sphere of influence. The fall of Ukraine will threaten the security of these allies. These states are our allies under the North Atlantic Treaty and became allies after advice and consent of the Senate in accordance with the Constitution, which declares treaties to be the “law of the land.” Conservatives should care that treaty commitments entered into under the Constitution are honored.
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