“President Joe Biden announced [last] Wednesday that the U.S. will send 31 M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of persistent arguments that the tanks were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain. The U.S. decision came on the heels of Germany agreeing to send 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its own stocks. Germany had said the Leopards would not be sent unless the U.S. put its Abrams on the table.” AP News
The right is divided about further military assistance for Ukraine.
“Yes, Germany, Britain and the United States recently agreed to send new tank shipments. But most won’t reach the battlefield for months. Ukraine’s heroes need them — and other weapons, including fighter jets and longer-range missiles — yesterday…
“In the fall, Ukraine repelled Russian forces in the east, but Russia just seized the town of Soledar there and is pummeling encircled Bakhmut. Capturing it would boost Moscow’s control of the entire Donbas region, a chief goal of Vladimir Putin’s horrific campaign. Shoring up Ukraine now not only helps it resist any new offensives and head off Russian breakthroughs, but also boosts Kyiv’s drive to oust the invader in the south… The stakes are far too high to dawdle.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) writes, “Because Biden dithered, Ukrainian troops will face Russian offensives this spring without the benefit of American heavy armor. Imagine instead if Biden had committed tanks and other offensive assets at the beginning of Russia’s invasion, instead of one year later. They might be in the field right now, along with tanks from our European allies. The Ukrainians might be preparing to retake territory, as opposed to bracing for Russia’s next offensive…
“As for concerns about escalation, naysayers have made the same dire predictions each time we’ve sent new weapons to Ukraine. And each time, far from sparking a wider conflict, those new weapons have deterred Russia and prevented it from retaliating… It’s time to give Ukraine what it needs to throw out the Russian invaders, retake its sovereign territory, and win this war.”
Tom Cotton, Fox News
Critics argue, “This follows a pattern of the Biden Administration saying it won’t send certain categories of advanced weaponry to Ukraine, and then reversing course days or weeks later. Is there a strategy here at all?… I’m generally sympathetic to helping any nation that wants to resist aggression against its sovereign territory. But increasingly our Ukraine policy looks like our Afghan policy—it is not a situation to be solved, but merely ‘managed.’ It risks ending the same way—for us, and for the poor Ukrainians.”
Steven Hayward, Power Line Blog
“The entire situation in Ukraine continues to spiral out of control. We are escalating the war at a furious pace and nobody in Washington from either party seems to care. It’s long past time to hit the pause button and ask ourselves who is really benefitting from all of this. (Aside from the military-industrial complex, of course, where contractors are raking in billions of dollars from this fiasco.) If someone inside the White House or the Pentagon actually believes that the American people would somehow benefit from going to war against Russia, they should have the courage to stand up in front of the cameras and say so. If not, then we need to slow this train down by a great deal before we end up riding it off of a cliff.”
Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
The left generally supports further military assistance for Ukraine.
The left generally supports further military assistance for Ukraine.
“By all rights, [Russia] should have crushed Ukraine at the start of the war. That this didn’t happen — and that the war is now heading into its second year with Kyiv in a good position to regain more lost ground — can be explained in no small part by the reality that Ukraine has many allies and Russia does not. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimates that the United States and Europe have pledged roughly $100 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion…
“Russia’s biggest missing military supplier is China — the world’s largest exporter of high-tech goods and the fourth-largest exporter of weapons. Beijing could play the same role for Russia that the United States is playing for Ukraine… But that hasn’t happened… As long as China stays largely on the sidelines, Ukraine will have a fighting chance to prevail.”
Max Boot, Washington Post
“[German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s] decision, taken under pressure from NATO allies, was a smart, courageous reaffirmation of the West’s resolve to prevent a Russian victory and protect a basic precept of the international order: the impermissibility of wars of aggression… Ukraine is not an alien nation. It is part of Europe, and Ukrainians are sacrificing and dying to defend part of the continent.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“Long-term Putin-watchers think there is little threat of Russia escalating to the point of provoking NATO to respond with force [because] Moscow knows it couldn’t survive the confrontation. ‘One of the few objectives that the Russian and US leadership share at the moment is avoiding a direct conflict between the two powers,’ says Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute think tank…
“Each time Russia warns of escalation – either by itself or NATO – Western capitals must keep sight of the fact: Russia is the aggressor in this conflict and the West is nowhere near being at war with Russia. And no matter what noises Kremlin officials make about the West trying to destroy Russia, only one sovereign state has invaded another sovereign state and illegally claimed parts of its territory by force.”
Luke McGee, CNN
Critics point out, “All major countries in the Western alliance were complicit in military fiascos that ravaged entire regions of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Political leaders marched into easily predicted disasters accompanied by a supporting chorus of media outlets, ranging from Fox News to the Economist, that drowned out or deliberately delegitimized dissenting voices…
“There is good reason to worry when, still unpunished for their calamitous bungles, many in the West’s intellectual-industrial complex again cheerlead a military intervention, this time against the fanatical leader of a nuclear-armed country.”
Pankaj Mishra, Bloomberg