Posts published in “Defense and Foreign Policy”

Both Ukraine and Israel are key American allies who need and deserve U.S. military aid—now.

The inconsistency is head spinning. Populist “New Right” Republicans have rushed forward to voice their support for Israel after that country came under attack by Hamas, an Iranian proxy force based in Gaza.

Yet, with a straight face, these same populist Republicans say we must stop funding Ukraine.

Israel. v. Ukraine. Israel, you see, is an historic and democratic ally; but Ukraine is a corrupt country that, historically, has never been considered an American ally.

Israel is waging war against Hamas, a ragtag terrorist group with little real military capability. Ukraine, by contrast, is fighting Russia, a nuclear power that could well ignite “World War III.”

Continued military aid to Ukraine, moreover, would mean short-changing Israel of critical weapons systems and munitions, which are in short supply, and which, therefore, must not be diverted to Ukraine.

So argue the populist “New Right” Republicans.

Biden Funding Request. The issue has come to a head because President Biden Thursday gave an Oval Office address calling for $61.4 billion in new funding for Ukraine, $14.3 billion in new funding for Israel, and $7.4 billion in new funding for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.

Populist “New Right” Republicans have criticized Biden for lumping these funding requests together.

They want separate funding bills for all three countries or theaters of operation, but especially Ukraine, and the reason why is not hard to discern: They want to fund Israel and defund Ukraine.

This is wrongheaded, dangerous, and myopic.

The truth is that both Ukraine and Israel are key American allies who need and deserve U.S. military support—now. Both countries are being savagely and barbarically attacked by an axis of aligned countries that threaten vital U.S. national security interests.

Russia wants to drive the United States out of Europe, subsume Ukraine and the Baltic States, and bring Eastern Europe back under its heel.

Iran, meanwhile, wants to drive the United States out of the Middle East, destroy Israel, and become the region’s dominant, hegemonic power.

Russian and Iran are both opposed to the American-led, rules-based international order.

Iran uses Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad, and other proxy forces to wage war against Israel, America, and the West.

Russia uses the Wagner Group, other mercenary forces, and a conscript army to wage war against Ukraine, America, and the West.

Iran and Russia. Iran provides Russia with kamikaze suicide drones to destroy Ukraine and murder innocent Ukrainian civilians.

“Both of these heavily sanctioned pariah states depend on oil revenue to stay afloat. Global instability,” Jonah Goldberg observes, “keeps the petrodollars flowing.”

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of 1,400 Israelis, “Russia said nothing… Putin then blamed Hamas’s atrocities on the United States,” Matthew Continetti reports.

Israel and Ukraine are different countries that face unique situations, but as far as the United States is concerned, “this is one war,” he writes.

There is more than enough evidence of a vast international effort to overturn the American-led post-World War II international system.

The rabid dogs tearing at the seams of world order are Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Holding the leash is Communist China, whose leader Xi Jinping welcomed Vladimir Putin to Beijing the day before Biden touched down in the Holy Land.

Republicans who are serious about protecting the United States, and ensuring that we win and that our enemies lose, must recognize this reality. They must recognize that stopping Iran and protecting Israel necessarily means stopping Russia and protecting Ukraine.

To give one leg of this axis of evil a pass would mean that the other leg could still stand. Both legs must be opposed and taken out; otherwise, they will continue to give succor and support to each other.

Ukraine. Populist Republicans complain that Ukraine has not historically been an American ally. This is true, but so what?

Ukraine is now an American ally because of the crucible of war and necessity. And the same was true of South Korea at the onset of the Korean War in 1950.

South Korea had never been a great or historic American ally before the Communist North Korean invasion.

Yet, in the intervening decades, South Korea has become a key American ally in Asia. And the alliance between our two countries is now more important than ever, given the growing threat posed by Communist China.

Democratization. South Korea is instructive in another way, too. For decades, it was ruled by an authoritarian regime marred by corruption. Yet, over time, it democratized and became more open, transparent, and politically pluralistic.

Ukraine today is far more of a liberal democracy than South Korea was during the Korean War; and, with American and European help, it will continue to democratize in the years and decades to come.

As for a shortage of weapons systems and munitions needed to aid both Ukraine and Israel, this, too, is a false flag.

“For the most part,” reports the New York Times, “Ukraine and Israel are fighting different kinds of wars, and have different capabilities and needs, according to current and former U.S. national security and congressional officials.”

“There’ll be very little overlap between what we’re going to be giving Israel and what we give to Ukraine,” Michael J. Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said last week.

And, to the extent there is a shortage of weapons systems and munitions, this only underscores the need for a much larger and more robust American defense budget.

The United States currently spends less than three percent of its GDP on defense. “That’s only about half of the burden of defense spending that the U.S. shouldered during the final decade of the Cold War,” David Frum writes.

Finally, the fear of “World War III” from opposing Russia doesn’t make any sense. The United States, after all, opposed Russia for decades throughout the Cold War without igniting “World War III.”

In truth, appeasing Russia is more likely to ignite a larger-scale war. And while Hamas by itself may not have much military wherewithal or capability, it has to be been seen and understood as part of a larger-scale Iranian military force that is, indeed, threatening and worrisome.

The bottom line: American military aid to Ukraine is critical for precisely the same reasons that American military aid to Israel is critical: because both countries are key American allies fighting enemies of the United States, Russia and Iran, respectively.

Populist “New Right” Republicans who try to suggest otherwise just don’t get it and cannot be trusted with American national security.

Feature photo credit: Leaders of the Axis of Evil (L-R): former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and Chinese Communist Party boss Xi Jinping, courtesy of the Century Foundation.