Ukraine – ResCon1

George H. W. Bush lost the White House in 1992. Biden’s foreign policy failures are setting him up for a similar election day defeat.

At the 1992 Democratic National Convention, then-Georgia Governor Zell Miller derided President George H.W. Bush as a man who “talks like Dirty Harry but acts like Barney Fife.”

It was a cheap shot and an unfair characterization of President Bush, who had masterfully orchestrated the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union, the liberation of Eastern Europe, and the destruction of the Iraqi Army in Kuwait.

Nonetheless, this colorful charge had political resonance and it helped to sink Bush in the 1992 presidential election, which he lost to Bill Clinton.

But while the charge was unwarranted when leveled against Bush in 1992, it is justified when leveled against Joe Biden in 2024. Biden talks a good game, but lacks policy follow-through. He talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk.

Biden’s policy toward Ukraine and Israel are illustrative examples. Biden talks about the importance of “standing with Ukraine” and “supporting Israel.” He champions the transatlantic alliance.

While commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, for instance, Biden warned:

Democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of the World War Two—since these beaches were stormed in 1944.

Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist?”

Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together?

Unfortunately, Biden’s actions don’t match his rhetoric. During World War II, what distinguished the transatlantic alliance was its commitment to winning the war and defeating the Axis powers.

Standing with our allies for freedom was a means to an end, not an end in itself. Yet for Biden, the means (standing with our allies) appears to be the end that he seeks, and winning is never mentioned or really pursued.

In short, Biden lacks the courage of his supposed (rhetorical) convictions. The policy result: self-deterrence and half-measures that undermine our allies, weaken our alliances, and embolden our enemies.

In Ukraine, for instance, Biden has steadfastly refused to allow Ukraine to use American long-range weapon systems, the Army Tactical Missile System (ATAMS), to strike Russian targets within Russia. This has given Russia a coveted sanctuary, or safe base of operations, from which they have repeatedly struck Ukraine civilian and military targets.

Recently, Biden finally and belatedly relented, somewhat. He has allowed Ukraine to strike a very limited number of Russian military sanctuaries within Russia. However, he did this only after the Ukrainian military risked being overrun and forced to cede significant territory, cities and population centers to Russia.

Even today, the Institute for the Study of War notes that Biden’s policy change “has reduced the size of Russia’s ground sanctuary by only 16 percent at maximum.” In other words, 84 percent of Russian sanctuaries remain off limits to the Ukrainian military.

Israel, too, has seen its hands tied by Biden, who has threatened to withhold military assistance if Israel pushes too far too fast in its effort to destroy Hamas. Biden has sought a diplomatic solution to the conflict that will appease both Israel and Hamas.

But as Matthew Continetti points out:

The war in Gaza won’t end with another ceasefire or food package or humanitarian pier. The war will end when Israel completes its task of destroying Hamas as a military force… America’s role in this task is to help our ally Israel by supplying military aid and assistance…

The problem with Biden’s aversion to winning in Ukraine and Gaza is that it is prolonging these horrific conflicts and giving America’s enemies, Russia and Hamas, reason to think they can win by outlasting us.

China and Iran, meanwhile, are watching and taking note. Does the United States lack the will to win? Will it tire of the fight? Is it a dependable ally? How committed is it, really, to the so-called rules based international order? Can it be forced to back down if bloodied?

Unfortunately, because of Biden’s weak and tepid foreign policy—because of his reluctance to articulate and implement a winning strategy in both Ukraine and Gaza—the answers to these questions are not reassuring. Deterrence is failing and Biden is courting further war and conflict as a result.

The president needs to take a page from his hero, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who committed himself to the “unconditional surrender” of Germany and Japan during World War II.

Only by winning in Ukraine and Gaza can Biden win reelection in 2024. Otherwise, like President Bush in 1992, he’s going down.

Feature photo credit: Presidents George H. W. Bush and Joe Biden, courtesy of the White House and PBS, respectively.

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.