Two years ago, on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. The costs of this war have been unbelievably high. Half a million Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been either killed or wounded. In terms of cost, the U.S. alone has spent $113 billion on the war. And an aid package that includes another $60 billion for Ukraine is stuck in Congress.
Americans’ changing sentiment about the war has certainly contributed to that package being in limbo. Two years ago, there was broad support for the war: 66 percent of Americans thought we needed to help Ukraine. But that view is no longer the consensus. Several polls have indicated that the majority of Americans oppose additional funding to support Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces last weekend. The Biden administration says it’s a direct consequence of congressional inaction.
Today on Honestly, a debate: Where is all of America’s aid to Ukraine going? Is Ukraine really such a clear-cut cause? Even if you believe that it is, what has all of this sacrifice gotten Ukraine—and the U.S.? Can Ukraine even win this war? What’s the endgame? And is victory in Ukraine really as important to America as many politicians claim that it is?
Bret Stephens is a Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columnist for The New York Times. His book, America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder, foresaw much of today’s world. Bret worries that the world is on the precipice of World War III. Isolationism, he argues, only contributes to global instability.
Elbridge Colby is co-founder of The Marathon Initiative think tank. He served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development under President Trump, and he is the author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict. Colby believes the United States must make difficult defense choices in an era of great power competition. Ukraine, he argues, is not the top priority.
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I find it interesting that one of the concerns and disagreements discussed was how Republicans seem to be "switching places" to a more typically Democrat stance and showing little interest or resolve to defend Ukraine. It was also pointed out that our current president has no leadership qualities or personal charisma to use his bully pulpit to help rally American sentiment. What we have been told as Republicans is that WE are the "greatest existential threat" to the US. Any message that Biden, Harris, any other current democratic leader, MSM - is that White Supremacists are the "biggest threat" to our nation. And that white supremacists are the Mega Republicans. So if you happen to have voted for Trump (ie, half the nation) you pose some "threat" to the US and that this is the MAIN THREAT to the US. This doesn't leave much room for other concerns does it. Should we just ignore that constant vitriol and pay attention to Ukraine? In truth, we cannot ignore it. Any time you see Biden televised or watch any main stream news show ALL you hear about is TRUMP and MAGA Republicans. When the administration and the country in general puts this as their focus, there is not much else left for foreign conflicts. And to suggest that "MAGA Republicans" now idealize Putin! No. No Republican thinks that. The bottom line remains, that the most left wing Democrat and the moderate Democrats and even the "free thinkers" of The Free Press still do not understand what the average Trump voter or the average Republican values, how they think or what they think. even Bari Weiss and many of the other Free Press moderators suggest that MAGA Republicans are delusional red necks. The Andrew Sullivan "realization" was ridiculous. If you can divert your focus OFF Trump for more than 5 minutes, if you can STOP insulting half the country, if you can make a case for anything other than the focus they continue to have, maybe you'd actually rally people to a cause. Otherwise, the apathetic reaction is what results.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is wrong.
Russia's actions in the invasion brings chaos into world affairs, where order is needed.
A fledgling democracy, one in which it's people are fighting like crazy to preserve it, is under attack by an autocracy that only recognizes that might makes right.
For a people who "hold these truths to be self evident...", you'd think this would be reason enough.
Or maybe we just feel that "these truths" hold for just us. Or just for them that can enact them by themselves. (I'm pretty sure the French gave us plenty of help.)
Or maybe we feel that NATO expansion incited Russia to barbarism.
If this is so, then we must feel a great deal of sympathy for the poor Japanese who had the snot beaten out of them just for being incited by American naval bases in the pacific, far from our shore (Hawaii was not a state until 1959).
Maybe we feel my 22 year old Grandfather, Lt Ken Kehoe (WWII Big Red One), was foolishly naïve for getting involved in world affairs that didn't really effect his life, and getting killed in North Africa before even meeting his daughter.
But I've read his letters, he knew what he was doing and knew the risk, and he thought it mattered, should be done, and was the right thing to do. Fortunately, a lot of Americans felt the same way.
And just because there might be a fire somewhere else, it doesn't mean we should let some houses burn.
It doesn't really matter which old man is President.
The right thing for Americans to do, is still the right thing for Americans to do.
Stop being tribal, be American.