The damage has been done. The message has been sent.
Russia’s fifth column, also known as the MAGA Republicans, have placed a giant question mark over whether the United States can ever again be counted upon to be a reliable ally to Ukraine and to our European treaty partners. By blocking progress on critically needed funding for Ukraine, the GOP’s right wing has demonstrated a reckless disregard for U.S. national security that bodes ill for the year ahead.
Surely, even if the aid for Ukraine is ultimately approved, Vladimir Putin has gotten the message. It will be difficult for President Joe Biden to provide the support needed to achieve progress or victory on the battlefield in Ukraine, and should Donald Trump be elected next November, the West’s efforts to repel Russian aggression will come to an end.
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MAGA leaders have made it crystal clear. They don’t care about protecting our European allies. They don’t care about defending democracy. They don’t care about the hundreds of thousands of victims of Russian aggression—the dead, the wounded, the kidnapped, the homeless, the displaced, the children who have been consigned to a life of terror because of the monster in the Kremlin.
They don’t care that substantial majorities in Congress support the president’s proposal. They don’t care that the amount of aid we are providing to Ukraine is less than 1 percent of the federal budget. They don’t care that from a defense perspective, our support for Ukraine has probably generated the greatest return on investment of any in our history.
A recent Pentagon report revealed the fact that with American and allied help, Ukraine has obliterated Russia’s military. According to American intelligence, Moscow has lost nearly nine out of ten of the active-duty ground troops it had at the start of its invasion of Ukraine. It has lost two-thirds of its tanks.
Ukrainian soldiers in their fighting position on the frontline in Zaphorizhia, Ukraine on Dec. 5, 2023.
Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe military capacity of one of America’s most dangerous adversaries has been devastated for less than a penny out of each of our budget dollars. But the petty, disloyal MAGA politicos on Capitol Hill just don’t care.
They offer flimsy arguments to defend their position. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) has argued that some would have us cut Social Security to provide Ukraine with aid so that some of their government ministers “can buy a bigger yacht.”
President Joe Biden shakes hands with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.
Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesEven fellow Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) was compelled to call the statement “total and unmitigated bullshit.”
Why?
Well, for one thing, no one is suggesting Social Security be cut in order to provide Ukraine aid. For another, Ukraine aid is not sufficiently large to require such cuts. Further, the vast majority of our aid to Ukraine doesn’t actually go to Ukraine. It goes to U.S. defense manufacturers to provide weapons systems and supplies to that country. The money is spent here, supporting our economy and our workers.
Vance showed such contempt for the facts that he compounded his lies by walking out of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy in which he might have actually learned something.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, leader of the effort to block the Ukraine funding, also resorted to spouting nonsense to defend his indefensible actions. He said, “I have asked the White House since the day that I was handed the gavel as speaker for clarity. We need a clear articulation of the strategy to allow Ukraine to win. Thus far, their responses have been insufficient.”
He said this despite the constant, detailed, and explicit public and private presentations by the administration of its Ukraine policy and goals over the past nearly two years. Few such policies have ever been detailed so painstakingly in our history.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson addresses the media after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec. 12, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesBut, you see, that doesn’t matter to Johnson—because facts don’t generally matter to the election-denying speaker. He just wants to play politics.
The GOP has asked, for no sensible reason, to tie further aid to Ukraine (as well as aid to Israel) to more funding for border security and concessions on immigration policy.
Democrats have made substantial concessions and sought to get a deal done. But this week, Republican members of the House and Senate said “no,” they could not be bothered to negotiate before the deadline specified as critical by the White House. In so doing, they communicated in no uncertain terms that they just don’t care about the costs to Ukraine, or to our national security, nor about the threat that represents to our allies.
What a Christmas president for Vlad!
It’s as if MAGA world wanted to make the obvious even more explicit. They want Vlad to know that if he holds out long enough, they will reverse the support Ukraine has gotten. They will weaken Ukraine’s ability to resist. They will make our allies more vulnerable. They will make it more likely that Russia will be emboldened to go farther into Europe—into a situation in which we will no longer be able to keep American troops out of the action, as we have in Ukraine.
It is a message that not only can’t be unsent, but it is one that you can expect to hear from candidate Trump in between court appearances, mug shots, and sentencings next year.
Senior U.S. officials believe that even if Putin is trying to put the war on hold until Trump gets in, with our support (should it ultimately arrive) and that of our allies Ukraine will be able to make meaningful gains against Russia in 2024. So they will keep pushing for it.
And the Biden administration will continue to send a message that Putin and the world ought to heed as well: If Biden is reelected, Ukraine and our other friends and allies can expect that they will do everything in their power to defeat Putin and to compound the devastating damage that has already been done to his military, his economy, and his standing in the world.
