Kevin McCarthy's Dangerous Suggestion that a Republican-Controlled House Would Cut Aid to Ukraine

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed last week that a Republican-controlled House could shut off funding for Ukraine's defense against the Russian invasion. It's probably the best news Russian president Vladimir Putin has had in months and McCarthy's comment comes at a pivotal moment in the conflict. US and European aid has allowed Ukrainian forces to go on the offensive to regain territory lost to Russia during the first months of the war. The last thing we should want to do is provide Putin hope that if he can hang on a bit longer, Republicans will regain the majority in Congress and weaken Ukrainian resistance.

McCarthy and many nationalist Republicans aligned with Trump's growing MAGA faction claim their reluctance to finance Ukrainian efforts hinge on inadequate oversight of the money, but as Shay Khatiri points out in a recent article for the center-right Bulwark organization, in reality, there are probably too many oversight rules on the money allocated by Congress and it's slowing down the pipeline to a nation struggling to survive the onslaught of a much wealthier and better-armed aggressor.

The Bulwark: "Regarding oversight: The problem with the aid packages sent to Ukraine is not that they lack substantial oversight, but that the oversight they require is too rigorous. The May aid package, for example, requires the secretary of defense and the inspector general of the Department of Defense to separately send reports to Congress about how the money is being spent; the secretary is required to submit new reports every 30 days through fiscal year 2023." ...

MAGA Republicans also argue that Ukraine’s fate is not tied to our national interests, and that US aid doesn't further “a nationalist foreign policy.” As a result, about a fifth of the GOP Conference in the Senate and a quarter of the GOP Conference in the House have voted against further aid for Ukraine and it has become a focal point for isolationist tendencies in the GOP. Such thinking is shortsighted and assumes that Putin will be satisfied once he installs a puppet government in Kyiv. That's naïve, at best.

USIP.org: ... "as former President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has noted, an independent Ukraine stands as a vital bulwark between Russia and the re-establishment of empire. A subservient Ukraine is crucial to Russia’s ability to again threaten Europe, as it did during the Cold War. As an empire, Russia stood as a threat to all its neighbors – the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as to Poland, Southeastern Europe, the Republic of Georgia and on to Central Asia."

The war in Ukraine is about maintaining peace throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It's also about upholding the central tenant of our rules-based system of international relations that's existed since the creation of the United Nations. We can never again allow nations to acquire additional territory through conquest. That was the underlying rationale for the international community's successful effort to push Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991 and the sanctions placed on Russia after Putin invaded Crimea in 2014. It also underlies our promise to defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression.

In the end, success in Ukraine will quash Putin's dreams of Russian expansion and force the Russian people to consider democratic reforms to prevent further misadventures abroad. They are likely to realize that Putin is a greater threat to their peace, security, and economic well-being than NATO ever was.

Victory in Ukraine will also act as a warning to Xi Jinping about the costs associated with wars of aggression and the international community's resolve to face down tyrants.

#news #internationalrelations #Putin #ukraine

By: Don Lam & Curated Content