When potential presidential contender Ron DeSantis urged caution in America’s support for Ukraine, saying that getting entangled in such “territorial disputes” is not a vital national interest, the Wall Street Journal editorialized that this is the Florida governor’s “first big mistake.”
Other possible Republican contenders, seeing an opening, have been jumping all over DeSantis for his “isolationism,” a position that he shares with Donald Trump.
Some 40% of Republicans agree that the U.S. is giving “too much” help to Ukraine, but that means that 60% do not. The Republican establishment includes plenty of “neo-conservatives” who believe that the U.S. should use military action to promote our democratic ideals, a mindset that gave us the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Trumpian wing of the party disagrees. It is ironic that Trump, despite his bellicose personality, is actually the peace candidate, something he doesn’t get enough credit for, so hated is he on the peacenik left.
Then again, most leftists are not peaceniks when it comes to Ukraine. According to progressive writer Stephen Miles, “The overwhelming majority of progressives in the United States approve of President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine.” And, of course, the Democratic Party is solidly behind President Biden, who is waging that support, giving Ukraine lots of money and lots of weapons, to the point of running down our supply.
Rick Moran sees the Republicans’ disagreements about Ukraine to be “the most serious fault line in the Republican Party in more than a generation.”
So I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter. What should be the U.S. policy regarding the War in Ukraine? What lines should be drawn? Should we do whatever it takes to stop Russia, or are there limits?
Here are some of my thoughts: I appreciate how the brave and patriotic Ukrainians have, up to this point, brought the feared Russian military to its knees. I am all for them. I recognize that they need money and weapons to keep up the fight.
But we need to be extremely careful not to provoke Russia to use nuclear weapons. And I’m not confident that we are being careful.
I worry that our own military supplies are being depleted, we are sending so much of them to Ukraine. That should not be allowed to happen.
Also, all of the wars we have gotten ourselves into recently have been for idealistic reasons but have proven to be disasters, with unforeseen consequences that we should have foreseen.
What do you think?
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