Historic Betrayal: Failure to Aid Ukraine
Help Ukraine now: Congress is on the verge of a historic betrayal that gives Russian strongman Vladimir Putin exactly what he wants.
And Republicans are the main holdout, as this has somehow become a partisan issue, though Putin says outright that his mission is to oppose America and the West.
Yes, President Biden has failed to sell the public on the need to help Ukraine stand against Russia’s naked aggression, but that’s no excuse for telling all America’s enemies that our partisan politics now leave us too divided to oppose them.
As Congress dithers, Ukrainian forces are running dangerously low on munitions; chances for a Russian breakthrough grow.
Other NATO nations have dug deep to keep Ukraine resupplied while President Biden and Congress bicker.
But only America can supply key materiel.
And letting Putin take Ukraine is an invitation for him to keep going, and see if NATO fails the next test, too: His arms industry is running great.
The Senate did its job Thursday, moving a standalone $95 billion Israel-Ukraine foreign aid bill toward a final vote next week, after Democrats balked at including real border-control provisions as well and Republicans refused to sign on to bogus ones.
So now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has it right: “Failure to pass this bill would only embolden autocrats like Putin and [China’s Xi Jinping] who want nothing more than America’s decline.”
This hands Speaker Mike Johnson a brutal task: He’ll need to work with Democrats again to get aid for Israel and Ukraine to become law, further stressing the fractures in the narrow GOP majority.
But for all their innovative tactics, courage and bravery, Ukraine’s defenders can’t last long being outgunned by Putin’s army of convicts, mercenaries and conscripts.
Failing to stand up now would be a dereliction that reverberates through the century — the moment when the United States stopped standing up for its allies.
The stakes, and the sides, couldn’t be more clear: Back freedom against evil, or tell America’s enemies we’re too busy bickering to get in their way.
