It seems like an interesting question to ask what Johnson gained or feared about this mammoth spending deliberation. He said he changed his mind after a conversation with intelligence. If intelligence threatened him, was there nobody on the right who could reassure him?
Trump reluctantly supported all of Johnson’s decisions the other day. Is Trump still afraid of intelligence? Did Trump decide not to rock the boat before HIS election? Certainly 100 billion means nothing to Republicans who just passed a budget adding 1 trillion dollars, minimum, to the debt every hundred days forever. The Republicrats are hard to respect.
the "intelligence " community can make your life a living hell , they can gather and leak information about you or if they cant find anything just make things up as they go
i lost respect for republicans a long time ago for a variety of reasons , the only way why i was holding my nose and voting R was because democrats embrace positions i abhor and so having them in charge be even worse .
Republicans did not find their love for "fiscal responsibility " until the TEA party wave send some of the old school republicans that never seen a spending bill they didnt like packing , the party subsequently noticed that fiscal responsibility was a selling point and so they embraced it.
The problem is that their idea of fiscal responsibility is highly selective meaning that spending $100B on social programs , give seniors a raise or on any other thing that actually benefits americans is a big no no while sending $100B overseas is a ok !
Is Trump supporting Johnson and this approach due to TikTok forced sell as part of this war funding, and Trump allies are in pole position to buy this influential platform? Maybe this is the long game. That said, there’s some real untangling to do on whoever is ‘granted the right’ to buy TikTok. ByteDance can sell the TikTok name, but will the CCP allow sale of the valuable, underlying algorithm?
People like Mr. Whiton are a major part of what is wrong with the US today. He is so concerned with what “would help Republicans and harm Democrats” that he seems to care nothing about what is right or good for America. My father and millions of others fought a war about 80 years ago (maybe Mr. Whiton has heard of it) so that the West would not be subject to the whims of men like Putin. Mr. Whiton and much of today’s Republican Party would have us believe all those good men who fought and died were fools who were suckered into a meaningless war. If sending arms to Ukraine to help it fight for freedom is a waste, then the only conclusion is that all the sacrifices made eighty years age were also a waste. I refuse to believe that. I support aid to Ukraine, because it is the right thing to do, just as it was the right thing to do when America helped liberate Europe from Hitler. I also support it because I have a son serving in the US Army, and I would rather send arms now than blood later. I have been a Republican all my life, and I voted for Trump twice, but I am done with the know-nothing types who seem to control the Republican Party today. I will not vote for any so called Republican who does not support aid to Ukraine, including Trump if that remains his position. In Texas, we still remember that good men came to aid Texas when it fought for its freedom; all the Ukrainians are asking is that we send them arms so THEY can fight for their freedom. Shame on anyone who will not give them what they need.
We did not fight in WWII to make sure we could sell weapons to roughly half the world eighty years later. Ukraine was negotiating peace with Russia before the US bribed them to leave the negotiating table. The last time Ukraine elected an enthusiastically pro-Russia president, the US funded a coup. Now Ukraine is a fascist kleptocracy. If Russia set up a puppet government in Mexico and started sending Mexico missiles, the US would invade in a month. It took Putin nearly ten years and a brazen violation of our treaties with Russia to force Putin’s hand, from his perspective. The problem with brainwashed neo-cons like J Lewis and Hillary, is they never take responsibility for anything and just insult anyone who disagrees with “forever war.” Biden has given you five new wars and a war on civil liberties around the western world. We fought WWII to prevent the US from becoming a fascist state run by Senile Hitler. You are now a Biden, Bush, Obama supporter. I weep for the millions who will die so you have a chance of winning the next election. You will win none of these proxy wars.
You really do not know history. The US was never at risk for being invaded by Germany. We fought the war in Europe to save Europe from being controlled by Hitler. We used the excuse of a mostly meaningless pact between Japan and Germany to declare war in Germany, but we were already funding the war prior to that for the same reasons we should support Ukraine today. I feel sorry for you that you can’t get past the Putin talking points that have become the mantra of so many of today’s “Republicans.” It is those who refuse to help who will have blood on their hands if the help isn’t sent and Putin ethnic cleanses Ukraine before he settles on his next target.
If Hitler was allowed to take over the rest of Europe and keep the oil producing areas he had already taken, what makes you believe that his next targets wouldn't be in the Americas?
Hitler wanted the USA, so I can't say he wouldn't have invaded if he had the chance. As for "Putin's talking points", I have no idea what Putin says and I despise the man, so I don't listen to him. I do know that a good chunk or those living in Ukraine are actually Russians and a friend of a friend who's Ukrainian told me and my friend, a couple of years BEFORE Putin's invasion that her family in Ukraine was more afraid of war than of Putin taking over (the essence was "one corrupt government is about the same as another"). The Ukrainian government is corrupt, Zelensky has jailed journalists (I think one just died in jail?) and nearly the whole country is a money laundrying scheme.
Wanted and could are two different things. Germany biggest issues was a peace time economy supporting a war and a useless/ liability asset in Italy. Germany was never prepared to go to war with Russia either its vast untapped assets was never calculated by Hitler.
Mr. Bennett, Russia’s greatest fear following fall of Warsaw Pact was a reunified Germany. Germany was responsible for (est) 27M USSR deaths in WW2. Germany also took over Ukraine for a year in 1918 (occupied it w/ 400K troops). Russia wanted no part of Ukraine being part of an Article 5 club that includes Germany, for these 20th century reasons.
You make some very noteworthy observations, but I have a different take.
Yes our fathers and grandfathers fought a bloody war in Europe 80 years ago. We were successful, up to a point. Against the advice of General Patton, we chose to end the war and not engage Stalin as he conquered much of Eastern Europe. Would Stalin have been stopped? We'll never know, but Russia has never lost a border war: Germany, Poland, Finland, Ukraine.
Would you be in support of Ukraine if Biden & Co. decide to send US armed forces?
I would not. Putin is not going to acquiesce. A peaceful truce & compromise must be in order.
I’m a vet, Mr. Bennet, and I’m with Trump on defunding forever wars. So I guess I’ll cancel out your vote when I pull lever for Don the 3rd time this fall. Ukraine war didn’t happen until USA/NATO crept right up Russia’s tail end. This is not the 1990’s anymore when Russia was weak. We have little to no business in Ukraine. It’s a conflict that should have never happened. Remember when NATO also asked Georgia to join the Article 5 tripwire club?
We’ve already spent the money, just a matter of reimbursing the US military for aid it already sent. Don’t you get it? The US military is being hollowed out to send aid from all over the world to fund the war.
The only thing weird about Matt Gaetz is that there are not more like him in Congress (MTG gets an honorable mention). Meanwhile, the train keeps picking up speed as it heads down the tracks and the two above seem to be the only ones willing to put on the brakes.
When have democrats ever not called the shots in the house? Seriously. Name me a time when the GOP actually accomplished something that could possibly be construed as a win for the limited government movement? I'd love to hear a single example where a law was passed that did not expand the role, reach and power of the federal government.
One of the more interesting, and frightful, features of Biden's misadventure in Ukraine is that he has allowed Putin to goad him beyond threats of sanctions to the actual imposition of sanctions.
The "crushing sanctions" that Biden so glibly promised have turned out to be an illusion and failure.
Far worse, Putin and the world now know this was an enormous bluff, such that the threat of sanctions will no longer be a deterrent, at least to Putin and probably others.
There is zero evidence that Putin plans to expand Russia beyond the parts of Ukraine in which those of Russian dissent were being murdered and imprisoned for…thought crimes. Full stop. All intent crime accusations are 100% narrative spin speculation.
That's not so, and the evidence is in Putin's own words: immediately before the Russian invasion, Putin gave a long lecture on Russian TV about Russian history and identity, in which he claimed (among various other things) that Ukraine - all of it - has no legitimate existence as a separate country and that its people - all of them - aren't a separate nation from the Russians. He made it entirely plain that his ambition is to seize all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it ... and the invasion began.
It has turned out that most Ukrainians (including a lot of the Russian-speakers) disagree with Putin's claim that they're all really Russians, and it's clear that Putin was surprised by their determination to defend their independence, but Putin has never withdrawn his initial public claim to all of Ukraine.
None of that is true. The New York Times probably supports that narrative but it is not fact based. Would love if you could find me Putin’s quote, not translated by NYT or WaPo where he said anything resembling that.
What Putin did say, was that the brazen violation of several treaties in which the US promised that NATO would not extend to Russia’s border, is seen by Russia as an existential threat.
At the beginning of the war Russia was negotiating peace with Ukraine, and US bribed Ukraine to abandon the negotiations. That is an also a fact.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Thank God aid bill passed. Stopping Russia is critical to US interests. If Russia wins, we’ll spend way more to contain and keep off NATO’s border. It’s about time the Republican Party goes back to President Reagan, a real Republican, not the appeasement clowns that Trump and minions represents.
Russia will never lose. Ukraine is flat earth and demographics vis-a-vis Russia are not in its favor. It’s only a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ there is a negotiated settlement. But, that settlement will never result in Ukraine becoming a permanent member of NATO. If NATO had never extended membership to Ukraine, there would be no war. I state this not in any way as a Putin fan, just stating reality.
Well, I'm not so sure. The Soviet Union lost in Afghanistan, and that was also on their own border - not actually the Russian border, that's true, but all of Afghanistan's northern neighbours were at that time part of the U.S.S.R. Eventually (in that case it lasted about 10 years) the cost in blood and treasure was too much, so the Soviets gave up and went home.
The population of Afghanistan was about the same as the population of Ukraine. The terrain is very different, but bear in mind that much of the "flat earth" you mention is deep mud all summer and icy in winter, so it's difficult in different ways from Afghanistan, but still advantageous for locals who know the land. The Afghans had minimal help on the ground but did get foreign supplies, so that's similar. If the Ukrainians resist as determinedly as the Afghans, perhaps they'll eventually get a comparable result.
You believe Ukraine had a chance to win the war and still has a chance to win? You believe functionally, Biden’s Ukraine proxy war didn’t kill over 500,000 young Ukrainian men? Do you believe the Nordstream pipeline was blow up by Russia? Do you believe the “fine people” hoax? Who is most evil: Trump, Dave Chappelle, Putin, the Tate brothers, or JK Rowling?
Mr. Whiton is too smart for his terrible arguments;
1. America's national security strategy hinges on 2 two essential elements; securing freedom of navigation on the seas as befits a global maritime/trading power, and playing the "off-shore balancing" role of preventing foreign spoilers in upsetting an international order that again benefits the US, so as to peacefully and competitively engage in commerce in an international marketplace free of turmoil. Russian aggression in Ukraine/Black Sea is a transgression on both counts. If the US, who acted decisively following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Serbian aggressions in the Balkans, suddenly cant find their balls when an emerging nation of 43 million souls, who is a major exporter of grains and metals is suddenly on the chopping block of a dying empire that yearns for the old days, we are in trouble. Putin wants Russia's old empire back. That is a direct threat to our national interests. Mr. Whiton must know this.
2. Corruption; This is kind of a joke, and of all people who claim to have some kind of "understanding" regarding socialism, communism, and totalitarian command economies, conservatives should know better - Communism was an inherently evil system that, among other horrible things, left people to fend for themselves because it could not deliver the "meat" to the table. Non party people had to beg barter and steal to get by, and the fortunate few in the party apparatus slowly turned their party agencies into graft machines. Why fault a post Soviet nation for a symptom of an evil that the US rightly fought against for decades?
Fact I - every former east bloc state, despite throwing off the yoke of Russian communists, had to contend with cultures of corruption; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech, etc. Guess what? From a combination of their own determination, and vitally, western support, they surmounted it, and now constitute an important strategic bulwark for US interests. Ukraine wants to tread this road. They are simply a few historical chapters behind from when Reagan helped win the cold war and brought central Europe into the fold.
Fact II - For US strategists, corruption has never been a deal breaker, as long as it is strategically effective. Take a moment and think - Among Americas greatest achievements abroad (our intervention in WW2 to liberate Europe, and our successful "Containment" policy to defeat Russian led communist expansion) the US poured treasure into the coffers of dozens of foreign parties - kings, emirs, dictators, juntas, ersatz republics, etc. You get the point. Q1 - How clean were any of these regimes? Q2 - Regardless of graft, did the overall effect achieve our goal? It did.
Mr. Whiton surely knows the answer is yes - both then and now. The Ukrainians are still suffering symptoms of what I call "Long Socialism." Don't blame them. They want to get better. And the proof is in the pudding. Our support, and Kyiv's resolve, has resulted in a major global disruptor and avowed nemesis of US interests to have lost over %50 of their national combat capability. Half a million Zeds are pushing up daisies in Ukrainian wheat fields. That only happened due to a synergy of Ukrainian resolve and western material support. The fact that Kyiv has been able to hold off the Zeds for seven months despite US aid proves they are a sufficiently safe investment.
Clearly there is something rather private bedeviling Christian's thinking on this matter, but notions of strategic calculus and fears of graft in our aid are not among them. Perhaps one day he will be more candid.
Unbelievable. Russia requested back whole Eastern Europe from NATO and USA, check official documents on official russian ministerial website Dec 16 2021, this is how this war started. Russia the last colonial empire, want's the old East European colonies out of NATO , practically at it's mercy. Why would Russia stop advancing after winning Ukraine? Because of 1000 US troops defending the Baltic countries, Poland and Romania? Will anybody believe NATO will use nuclear to stop Russia? I feel like USA is exactly like in 41, dreaming it's untouchable. Btw, do you know that Russia is pushing USA out of Africa country by country? If Eastern Europe fails, western Europe will fail too shortly. Russia is fighting to destroy the US dollar, want's a new global order and China will fallow the winner, the Great Russian Empire.
As members of Congress used to say a few years ago, "A million here and a million there. Pretty soon we are talking about real money." Just substitute the "m" with a "b" and we have the result of adding $100 trillion every 100 days. And nobody cares.
It seems like an interesting question to ask what Johnson gained or feared about this mammoth spending deliberation. He said he changed his mind after a conversation with intelligence. If intelligence threatened him, was there nobody on the right who could reassure him?
Trump reluctantly supported all of Johnson’s decisions the other day. Is Trump still afraid of intelligence? Did Trump decide not to rock the boat before HIS election? Certainly 100 billion means nothing to Republicans who just passed a budget adding 1 trillion dollars, minimum, to the debt every hundred days forever. The Republicrats are hard to respect.
k
the "intelligence " community can make your life a living hell , they can gather and leak information about you or if they cant find anything just make things up as they go
i lost respect for republicans a long time ago for a variety of reasons , the only way why i was holding my nose and voting R was because democrats embrace positions i abhor and so having them in charge be even worse .
Republicans did not find their love for "fiscal responsibility " until the TEA party wave send some of the old school republicans that never seen a spending bill they didnt like packing , the party subsequently noticed that fiscal responsibility was a selling point and so they embraced it.
The problem is that their idea of fiscal responsibility is highly selective meaning that spending $100B on social programs , give seniors a raise or on any other thing that actually benefits americans is a big no no while sending $100B overseas is a ok !
Is Trump supporting Johnson and this approach due to TikTok forced sell as part of this war funding, and Trump allies are in pole position to buy this influential platform? Maybe this is the long game. That said, there’s some real untangling to do on whoever is ‘granted the right’ to buy TikTok. ByteDance can sell the TikTok name, but will the CCP allow sale of the valuable, underlying algorithm?
People like Mr. Whiton are a major part of what is wrong with the US today. He is so concerned with what “would help Republicans and harm Democrats” that he seems to care nothing about what is right or good for America. My father and millions of others fought a war about 80 years ago (maybe Mr. Whiton has heard of it) so that the West would not be subject to the whims of men like Putin. Mr. Whiton and much of today’s Republican Party would have us believe all those good men who fought and died were fools who were suckered into a meaningless war. If sending arms to Ukraine to help it fight for freedom is a waste, then the only conclusion is that all the sacrifices made eighty years age were also a waste. I refuse to believe that. I support aid to Ukraine, because it is the right thing to do, just as it was the right thing to do when America helped liberate Europe from Hitler. I also support it because I have a son serving in the US Army, and I would rather send arms now than blood later. I have been a Republican all my life, and I voted for Trump twice, but I am done with the know-nothing types who seem to control the Republican Party today. I will not vote for any so called Republican who does not support aid to Ukraine, including Trump if that remains his position. In Texas, we still remember that good men came to aid Texas when it fought for its freedom; all the Ukrainians are asking is that we send them arms so THEY can fight for their freedom. Shame on anyone who will not give them what they need.
We did not fight in WWII to make sure we could sell weapons to roughly half the world eighty years later. Ukraine was negotiating peace with Russia before the US bribed them to leave the negotiating table. The last time Ukraine elected an enthusiastically pro-Russia president, the US funded a coup. Now Ukraine is a fascist kleptocracy. If Russia set up a puppet government in Mexico and started sending Mexico missiles, the US would invade in a month. It took Putin nearly ten years and a brazen violation of our treaties with Russia to force Putin’s hand, from his perspective. The problem with brainwashed neo-cons like J Lewis and Hillary, is they never take responsibility for anything and just insult anyone who disagrees with “forever war.” Biden has given you five new wars and a war on civil liberties around the western world. We fought WWII to prevent the US from becoming a fascist state run by Senile Hitler. You are now a Biden, Bush, Obama supporter. I weep for the millions who will die so you have a chance of winning the next election. You will win none of these proxy wars.
You really do not know history. The US was never at risk for being invaded by Germany. We fought the war in Europe to save Europe from being controlled by Hitler. We used the excuse of a mostly meaningless pact between Japan and Germany to declare war in Germany, but we were already funding the war prior to that for the same reasons we should support Ukraine today. I feel sorry for you that you can’t get past the Putin talking points that have become the mantra of so many of today’s “Republicans.” It is those who refuse to help who will have blood on their hands if the help isn’t sent and Putin ethnic cleanses Ukraine before he settles on his next target.
If Hitler was allowed to take over the rest of Europe and keep the oil producing areas he had already taken, what makes you believe that his next targets wouldn't be in the Americas?
Germany declared war on America before we went to war with them. We probably would have engaged eventually, but we'll never know.
Russia has never lost a border war and will not on Putin's watch.
Will you support Ukraine if Biden & Co. decide to send US armed forces in? Not me.
Have we learned nothing from VietNam or Afghanistan?
Hitler wanted the USA, so I can't say he wouldn't have invaded if he had the chance. As for "Putin's talking points", I have no idea what Putin says and I despise the man, so I don't listen to him. I do know that a good chunk or those living in Ukraine are actually Russians and a friend of a friend who's Ukrainian told me and my friend, a couple of years BEFORE Putin's invasion that her family in Ukraine was more afraid of war than of Putin taking over (the essence was "one corrupt government is about the same as another"). The Ukrainian government is corrupt, Zelensky has jailed journalists (I think one just died in jail?) and nearly the whole country is a money laundrying scheme.
Wanted and could are two different things. Germany biggest issues was a peace time economy supporting a war and a useless/ liability asset in Italy. Germany was never prepared to go to war with Russia either its vast untapped assets was never calculated by Hitler.
Madison or Quincey Adams (one of our earliest pres) said "Don't be dragged into running all over the world putting out fires". (paraphrased).
Mr. Bennett, Russia’s greatest fear following fall of Warsaw Pact was a reunified Germany. Germany was responsible for (est) 27M USSR deaths in WW2. Germany also took over Ukraine for a year in 1918 (occupied it w/ 400K troops). Russia wanted no part of Ukraine being part of an Article 5 club that includes Germany, for these 20th century reasons.
Putin thinks everything that was part of the Soviet Union’s Empire is rightfully part of Russia. Are you willing to sell them out too?
You make some very noteworthy observations, but I have a different take.
Yes our fathers and grandfathers fought a bloody war in Europe 80 years ago. We were successful, up to a point. Against the advice of General Patton, we chose to end the war and not engage Stalin as he conquered much of Eastern Europe. Would Stalin have been stopped? We'll never know, but Russia has never lost a border war: Germany, Poland, Finland, Ukraine.
Would you be in support of Ukraine if Biden & Co. decide to send US armed forces?
I would not. Putin is not going to acquiesce. A peaceful truce & compromise must be in order.
I’m a vet, Mr. Bennet, and I’m with Trump on defunding forever wars. So I guess I’ll cancel out your vote when I pull lever for Don the 3rd time this fall. Ukraine war didn’t happen until USA/NATO crept right up Russia’s tail end. This is not the 1990’s anymore when Russia was weak. We have little to no business in Ukraine. It’s a conflict that should have never happened. Remember when NATO also asked Georgia to join the Article 5 tripwire club?
We’ve already spent the money, just a matter of reimbursing the US military for aid it already sent. Don’t you get it? The US military is being hollowed out to send aid from all over the world to fund the war.
The only thing weird about Matt Gaetz is that there are not more like him in Congress (MTG gets an honorable mention). Meanwhile, the train keeps picking up speed as it heads down the tracks and the two above seem to be the only ones willing to put on the brakes.
When have democrats ever not called the shots in the house? Seriously. Name me a time when the GOP actually accomplished something that could possibly be construed as a win for the limited government movement? I'd love to hear a single example where a law was passed that did not expand the role, reach and power of the federal government.
One of the more interesting, and frightful, features of Biden's misadventure in Ukraine is that he has allowed Putin to goad him beyond threats of sanctions to the actual imposition of sanctions.
The "crushing sanctions" that Biden so glibly promised have turned out to be an illusion and failure.
Far worse, Putin and the world now know this was an enormous bluff, such that the threat of sanctions will no longer be a deterrent, at least to Putin and probably others.
There is zero evidence that Putin plans to expand Russia beyond the parts of Ukraine in which those of Russian dissent were being murdered and imprisoned for…thought crimes. Full stop. All intent crime accusations are 100% narrative spin speculation.
That's not so, and the evidence is in Putin's own words: immediately before the Russian invasion, Putin gave a long lecture on Russian TV about Russian history and identity, in which he claimed (among various other things) that Ukraine - all of it - has no legitimate existence as a separate country and that its people - all of them - aren't a separate nation from the Russians. He made it entirely plain that his ambition is to seize all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it ... and the invasion began.
It has turned out that most Ukrainians (including a lot of the Russian-speakers) disagree with Putin's claim that they're all really Russians, and it's clear that Putin was surprised by their determination to defend their independence, but Putin has never withdrawn his initial public claim to all of Ukraine.
None of that is true. The New York Times probably supports that narrative but it is not fact based. Would love if you could find me Putin’s quote, not translated by NYT or WaPo where he said anything resembling that.
What Putin did say, was that the brazen violation of several treaties in which the US promised that NATO would not extend to Russia’s border, is seen by Russia as an existential threat.
At the beginning of the war Russia was negotiating peace with Ukraine, and US bribed Ukraine to abandon the negotiations. That is an also a fact.
Hey instead of blaming Johnson, how about getting a more robust majority elected.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Thank God aid bill passed. Stopping Russia is critical to US interests. If Russia wins, we’ll spend way more to contain and keep off NATO’s border. It’s about time the Republican Party goes back to President Reagan, a real Republican, not the appeasement clowns that Trump and minions represents.
Russia will never lose. Ukraine is flat earth and demographics vis-a-vis Russia are not in its favor. It’s only a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ there is a negotiated settlement. But, that settlement will never result in Ukraine becoming a permanent member of NATO. If NATO had never extended membership to Ukraine, there would be no war. I state this not in any way as a Putin fan, just stating reality.
Well, I'm not so sure. The Soviet Union lost in Afghanistan, and that was also on their own border - not actually the Russian border, that's true, but all of Afghanistan's northern neighbours were at that time part of the U.S.S.R. Eventually (in that case it lasted about 10 years) the cost in blood and treasure was too much, so the Soviets gave up and went home.
The population of Afghanistan was about the same as the population of Ukraine. The terrain is very different, but bear in mind that much of the "flat earth" you mention is deep mud all summer and icy in winter, so it's difficult in different ways from Afghanistan, but still advantageous for locals who know the land. The Afghans had minimal help on the ground but did get foreign supplies, so that's similar. If the Ukrainians resist as determinedly as the Afghans, perhaps they'll eventually get a comparable result.
You believe Ukraine had a chance to win the war and still has a chance to win? You believe functionally, Biden’s Ukraine proxy war didn’t kill over 500,000 young Ukrainian men? Do you believe the Nordstream pipeline was blow up by Russia? Do you believe the “fine people” hoax? Who is most evil: Trump, Dave Chappelle, Putin, the Tate brothers, or JK Rowling?
Mr. Whiton is too smart for his terrible arguments;
1. America's national security strategy hinges on 2 two essential elements; securing freedom of navigation on the seas as befits a global maritime/trading power, and playing the "off-shore balancing" role of preventing foreign spoilers in upsetting an international order that again benefits the US, so as to peacefully and competitively engage in commerce in an international marketplace free of turmoil. Russian aggression in Ukraine/Black Sea is a transgression on both counts. If the US, who acted decisively following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Serbian aggressions in the Balkans, suddenly cant find their balls when an emerging nation of 43 million souls, who is a major exporter of grains and metals is suddenly on the chopping block of a dying empire that yearns for the old days, we are in trouble. Putin wants Russia's old empire back. That is a direct threat to our national interests. Mr. Whiton must know this.
2. Corruption; This is kind of a joke, and of all people who claim to have some kind of "understanding" regarding socialism, communism, and totalitarian command economies, conservatives should know better - Communism was an inherently evil system that, among other horrible things, left people to fend for themselves because it could not deliver the "meat" to the table. Non party people had to beg barter and steal to get by, and the fortunate few in the party apparatus slowly turned their party agencies into graft machines. Why fault a post Soviet nation for a symptom of an evil that the US rightly fought against for decades?
Fact I - every former east bloc state, despite throwing off the yoke of Russian communists, had to contend with cultures of corruption; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech, etc. Guess what? From a combination of their own determination, and vitally, western support, they surmounted it, and now constitute an important strategic bulwark for US interests. Ukraine wants to tread this road. They are simply a few historical chapters behind from when Reagan helped win the cold war and brought central Europe into the fold.
Fact II - For US strategists, corruption has never been a deal breaker, as long as it is strategically effective. Take a moment and think - Among Americas greatest achievements abroad (our intervention in WW2 to liberate Europe, and our successful "Containment" policy to defeat Russian led communist expansion) the US poured treasure into the coffers of dozens of foreign parties - kings, emirs, dictators, juntas, ersatz republics, etc. You get the point. Q1 - How clean were any of these regimes? Q2 - Regardless of graft, did the overall effect achieve our goal? It did.
Mr. Whiton surely knows the answer is yes - both then and now. The Ukrainians are still suffering symptoms of what I call "Long Socialism." Don't blame them. They want to get better. And the proof is in the pudding. Our support, and Kyiv's resolve, has resulted in a major global disruptor and avowed nemesis of US interests to have lost over %50 of their national combat capability. Half a million Zeds are pushing up daisies in Ukrainian wheat fields. That only happened due to a synergy of Ukrainian resolve and western material support. The fact that Kyiv has been able to hold off the Zeds for seven months despite US aid proves they are a sufficiently safe investment.
Clearly there is something rather private bedeviling Christian's thinking on this matter, but notions of strategic calculus and fears of graft in our aid are not among them. Perhaps one day he will be more candid.
Well, the throwbacks sure as hell can't run it.
Unbelievable. Russia requested back whole Eastern Europe from NATO and USA, check official documents on official russian ministerial website Dec 16 2021, this is how this war started. Russia the last colonial empire, want's the old East European colonies out of NATO , practically at it's mercy. Why would Russia stop advancing after winning Ukraine? Because of 1000 US troops defending the Baltic countries, Poland and Romania? Will anybody believe NATO will use nuclear to stop Russia? I feel like USA is exactly like in 41, dreaming it's untouchable. Btw, do you know that Russia is pushing USA out of Africa country by country? If Eastern Europe fails, western Europe will fail too shortly. Russia is fighting to destroy the US dollar, want's a new global order and China will fallow the winner, the Great Russian Empire.
As members of Congress used to say a few years ago, "A million here and a million there. Pretty soon we are talking about real money." Just substitute the "m" with a "b" and we have the result of adding $100 trillion every 100 days. And nobody cares.