NATO, EU must step up to the fiscal plate to aid Ukraine
The United States has sent $3.7 billion of military support to Ukraine thus far. Now we want to give ten times that amount should Congress agree to President Joe Biden’s latest proposal.
Why such a huge increase? Is there a specific goal — other than “whatever (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy wants”?
Does the U.S. have a role in establishing peace? Is anyone negotiating with both parties for peace?
Or do we feel military escalation will yield the only possible positive result?
If that is the case, we must remember what an embargo caused Japan to do to the United States in the 1940s. And we must recognize the potential danger of cornering a clearly unstable leader in Russian President Vladimir Putin, who controls the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpile.
Where is the European Union or NATO in the funding of military hardware for
Ukraine? The United Kingdom has pledged $375 million in military hardware, a far cry from America’s $33 billion. And we are still waiting on others to step up to the plate.
The U.S. should not be donating +95% of the required resources. Other nations should be compensating us for saving them from a possible expansion of the Russian military and state. This should not be a total U.S. war via a proxy state.
Does anyone realize how much $33 billion is?
This ten-fold increase in funding to Ukraine would be equal to shutting the doors of the following U.S. government departments — Labor, Commerce, Small Business Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Instead of their hysteria pertaining to Jan. 6, abortion or “anything” Trump, the liberal media and Democrat leaders should pause and digest the meaning of this amount of aid.
Biden’s presidency resembles the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter in so many
respects. Ukraine is a just cause, but we are spending all this money to attempt to correct Biden’s mistakes.
Where to begin? Biden and his administration falsely claimed that sanctions would deter Russia from invading Ukraine. Compound that error by Biden’s refusal to concede that he ever said sanctions would deter Russia from invading Ukraine.
A contingency plan, like arming the Ukrainians, was
never implemented prior. Now, as a massive boulder is rushing down the hill, about to crush the Ukrainians once and for all, we are trying to help these brave people stop it.
Let us look back at history. In 1979, former President Jimmy Carter was shocked by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. He expressed outrage just like Biden has done about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both presidents were ill prepared to deal with the crisis. Over time, the U.S. government armed the Afghan rebels to fight off the Russians. Eventually (after about nine years), the rebels won.
At worst, I see a similar scenario playing out in Ukraine in the 21st century. The folks who have their hearts in a fight usually win. That is in anything. There is no question that the Ukrainian people have their heart and soul in pushing back the Russians.
Let us remember that the story of Afghanistan continued. It was the place where Osama Bin Laden planned his 9/11 attack on America, which resulted in a 20-year war against Afghanistan. Years later, Biden bungled our exit from the country as well, leaving behind billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment.
Carter and Biden are two old-fashioned, liberal Democrat politicians who have more in common than anyone would like to concede.
They both benefited from the impeachment of a prior Republican president — Nixon and Trump. They both created an energy crisis and supply chain problems. They both allowed themselves to be taken advantage of via taking in illegal immigrants and in allowing Americans to be taken hostage abroad (in Biden’s case, Russia is holding Americans in its prisons, including Brittney Griner, a female basketball player). Also, both had policies that contributed to causing high inflation and growing interest rates.
The best thing about the Carter administration was that it was followed by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, and brighter days for America.
For the sake of America and the free world, let us pray that Biden can do better, not worse.
Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New England’s first Black member of the House.