The silence is deafening about the European War for which American support has been choked off by the same extremists who are seeking to strangle American liberty. Their cold fascist hands are wrapped around the neck of decency, liberty, and ultimately, peace. They are creating the conditions for a wider war and utter global chaos. They are seeking to end America’s claim as leader of the global coalition of free nations in favor of the laws of the jungle, where the strong are right and the weak destroyed.
Republicans have stalled the Senate’s $111 billion emergency package for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific and border security. All are exigent emergencies, and each is a stand-alone issue. Ransoming them together does not connect them. What links them is that each connected together demonstrates for the whole world the unseriousness of our national leadership and the purposelessness of our politics. Decisions borne of petulence and passion that strangle Israel or Ukraine, or allow for chaos on the border demonstrate one thing: they are key evidence points regarding the abyss into which American democracy finds itself staring.
There are thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted and taken east into Russia. There is very sparse coverage of this issue in the United States anymore. I talked about this almost a year ago:
There is also very little talk about the depraved sexual violence of Russian forces and the evil done by Russian men with weapons against civilian populations that include children and the elderly.
Vladimir Putin instigated a criminal war of aggression against a sovereign nation. It is the absolute moral responsibility of the United States and the alliance of free nations— the most powerful military coalition in the world — to show fortitude, resolve and strength in a moment of testing. A failure to do so will invite more war crimes, more aggression and more disaster. It will bring war and destruction that beggars belief, and it will fall outside of Ukraine.
How can it be possible that the government of the United States would abandon Ukraine to the Russians, and in doing so, obliterate the most hard-learned lessons of the 20th century within the living life span of the people who landed on the beaches and survived the camps? Truly, how is that possible? It is sickening and shameful.
The urgency of the issue is not breaking through. There is no national security issue that is more important for American security than arming Ukraine until the war is won — no matter the cost. We can afford it. What we can’t afford is to let political stupidity and toxicity strangle Ukraine.
There is nothing that has a higher urgency than communicating this vital fact to the American people. What history teaches is that our sons and daughters will go to fight in a European war. This is unacceptable. There would be no war that could conceivably have ever been fought that would have been as unnecessary as the war to come because of a failure to arm the Ukrainians.
Putin and Xi are waiting. They are watching like two wolves surveilling their opportunities. They see their prey clearly, and they know that Donald Trump believes strength is license. The cause for a third world war will be clearly lit. The fighting will rage and spread with America on the sidelines, watching the madness spread. It will be dangerous for all of our children. It is stupefying and horrendously dangerous for their future.
The arming of Ukraine is an urgent matter and a vital issue. This is a war that the Russians cannot win. If they do, it will spread beyond Ukraine because only more aggression can justify the terrible costs already paid. Remember this: the Russians lost 40 million people in World War II. Their talent as a nation for suffering should never be underestimated. Ever.
The absolute inability and unwillingness of America’s responsible political leaders to communicate the vital danger of this moment has lowered a fog over the country. We are as blind to the dangers around us as we are to each others’ virtue and the opportunities that we share. What an appalling and disgraceful moment.
It is also about to become a violent one because, mark my words, a defeat in Ukraine means Russian victory.
A Trump victory will end NATO, and then the world will burn. Very soon.
Yesterday, the man whom Donald Trump referred to as “My Kevin” announced that he was leaving Congress after being deposed in the Matt Gaetz-led coup. That then resulted in the ascension of Speaker Mike Johnson, a religious fanatic who believes that humans and dinosaurs lived together. Here’s a “best of” collection of my writings on the ultimate cynic. Without question, Kevin McCarthy is one of the most corrupt politicians in American history. Adios!
Yesterday before the Senate vote President Biden, in front of the press corps, made a “serious as a heart attack” condemnation of Republican Senators’ siding with Putin, abandoning allies, and failing to grasp the gravity of their upcoming no vote. If you all didn’t see it, I recommend you watch it or Heather Cox Richardson had a summary with extended quotes in today’s newsletter. It seems that like Steve, the President thought, “We must speak of Ukraine.”
Also speaking of Ukraine, in this case Russian war atrocities, the Justice Department has charged four Russian officers with war crimes. Merrick Garland had no problem speaking of Ukraine yesterday either.
So, it is Republicans and only Republicans but not all Republicans who are, for malign reasons or just plain stupidity, who are willing to abandon Ukraine and therefore Europe to the fascist Putin’s invasion. Well played Republicans. Dreadful and despicable.
I simply don’t understand how some Americans fail to see or refuse to see that Russia has been playing the long game. They groomed DJT (and others) for the purpose of weakening American. Their efforts have paid off. NATO will be gone with him as the American dictator and Russia will take what it wants.