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Ukraine flag abstract paint
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Congress by video last week pleading for more assistance to end the unprovoked Russian war destroying his country and slaughtering his people, Americans got a look at a heroic international figure who has attracted worldwide acclaim and admiration.
For purely political reasons, far too many Americans won’t admit President Biden is Zelensky’s equally important ally protecting Ukraine and the world from the terrifying possibility of Russia’s biggest land war in Europe since World War II spiraling out of control.
The 30 democracies protected by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other nations organized by Biden to punish Russia economically for invading Ukraine certainly know it. All Americans should give thanks everyday their country once again has a competent president respected around the world instead of former President Trump who was an international joke.
Restoring NATO
Biden restored NATO once again into the unified, multi-national force that effectively deterred most Russian military aggression for 70 years. Trump didn’t see the value of NATO throughout his presidency and continued discussions with advisers until the end about withdrawing U.S. support, a virtual gift to Putin.
Zelensky knew when he spoke Biden and Congress wouldn’t support his plea for a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine because of the danger of drawing the U.S. into direct military conflict with Russia. That’s why Zelensky offered the alternative to the U.S. of providing more sophisticated air-defense systems to Ukraine.
Zelensky compared the surprise attacks on America from the air at Pearl Harbor and on September 11, 2001 to what Ukraine experiences every night. “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” he said.
Powerful Speech
Zelensky’s powerful 16-minute speech incorporated heart-wrenching video showing scenes of happy, beautiful Ukrainian families before the attack juxtaposed with crying children wandering lost through rubble, bodies dumped anonymously into mass graves and an anguished father holding the small hand of a child covered with a sheet. Captions against black backgrounds read: “This is a murder” and “Close the sky over Ukraine.”
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Within hours after Zelensky’s speech, Biden signed an order providing an additional $800 million in military equipment including the long-range, anti-aircraft, air defense systems requested by Zelensky. Belatedly, Republicans finally seem ready to join Democrats in supporting military assistance to Ukraine to defend itself from Putin, Trump’s old pal. That may not be their final answer.
Fox News, which provides much of the thinking for Republicans, is now Russia’s favorite American news channel. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared “only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view” while every other U.S. news source is spreading anti-Russia propaganda—“‘Russia is an aggressor,’ ‘Russia is murdering civilians,’ . . . and so on and so forth.” Blah, blah, blah. That’s why Putin now incorporates Tucker Carlson’s Fox News commentary on Russian state television with Russian subtitles.
Americans Back Ukraine
Seventy-four percent of all Americans, regardless of party according to a Pew survey, back U.S. support to protect Ukraine from Russia’s savagery with the largest share 42% saying the U.S. should provide more support and 32% saying it is providing the right amount of support. Only 7% say the U.S. should provide less support to Ukraine.
Despite that, elected Republicans are afraid of expressing too much public support for anything Biden does. That’s because their party depends upon the support of die-hard Trump voters who rely on Fox News for their misinformation and hate Biden and Democrats for fraudulently stealing the election.
That’s why Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and 30 other Republican Senators were spinning around in circles last week demanding Biden do more to arm Ukrainians against Russia’s assault just seven days after all 31 voted against a bipartisan $1.5 trillion spending bill funding every government agency and department for the rest of the fiscal year that included $13.6 billion in economic, humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine.
Besides voting against billions for Ukraine, Johnson also opposed $187 billion in federal funding happily supported by Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin for communities throughout Wisconsin including $2.5 million for a new Milwaukee County Mental Health Emergency Center and millions more for Milwaukee area health, employment, education, housing, water and transit projects.
This would be an ideal time for Republicans to join Democrats in pledging their allegiance to America and the democracies of the world instead of their allegiance to Trump who praised Putin for making a smart political move when he attacked Ukraine.
But that might not be a smart political move for Republicans who want to win back power in the midterms by holding onto as many Trump voters as possible, even the dangerously deranged ones who tried to hang Mike Pence.
Pence is now telling Republicans, “There’s no room in this party for apologists for Putin.” That’s what Trump calls a RINO—Republican in Name Only.
