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“The United States rejected a surprise offer by NATO ally Poland on Tuesday to transfer its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. base in Germany as a way to replenish Ukraine's air force in its defense against invading Russian forces.” Reuters
“A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the besieged port city of Mariupol amid growing warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn. Ukrainian officials said the attack wounded at least 17 people.” AP News
The right criticizes the decision not to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine.
“The United States and its allies have already acknowledged that we are providing Ukraine with Stinger antiaircraft missiles. Those missiles have the exact same role and purpose as the MiG fighter jets: to shoot down and kill Russian aircraft. Those Stinger missiles are not magically appearing in Ukraine. They are not being teleported to Ukrainian forces. They are being sent to Ukraine by the United States from NATO bases in Europe. How is sending fighter jets to carry out the same mission any different?…
“The Biden administration’s obsession with not giving Russia a pretext to declare us co-belligerents is not only weak; it is strategically pointless. As Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks points out, ‘If … the Kremlin would like to fight a war against NATO or Europe, they could always find a reason.’… Sending American pilots to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine risks putting us in direct combat with Russia. But there is absolutely no excuse for denying Ukraine the aircraft it needs to patrol its own skies.”
Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post
“As of Sunday, the position of the U.S. government, at least as articulated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was that we wanted the planes to get transferred and would do our part to ensure that the planes got there… The only explanation [for the reversal] from the Pentagon is that there isn’t a ‘substantive rationale for it,’ which will surprise the Polish and the Ukrainians…
“What the heck changed between Monday and Tuesday afternoon? One possibility is that the Biden administration is just utterly erratic, disorganized, and doesn’t really know what it wants to do — a scenario that is difficult to rule out after what we witnessed in Afghanistan…
“But another possibility is that the Russians, through one channel or another, indicated that they would treat those planes as legitimate targets to destroy — even if they were sitting parked at Ramstein Air Base getting checked and ready to deploy… [This would mean] that the Russian government can tell NATO not to do something, and NATO will obey. Moscow deterred a U.S. government decision, and then turned around and bombed a children’s hospital. Vladimir Putin effectively demonstrated a veto over our actions.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
“As it stands, Putin’s already getting away with waging war on civilians, targeting hospitals and schools… Our leaders are worried about what the enemy will do, rather than giving him cause to worry about what the world’s most potent military will do. It’s so bad that Psaki on Thursday declared that Russia going chemical is not a red line for the United States, reiterating, ‘The president’s intention of sending US military to fight in Ukraine against Russia has not changed.’ Sounds a lot like permission to let the poisons fly, doesn’t it?…
“The Biden administration has been a day late and a dollar short for months now: sending Stingers and similar weapons to Ukraine only after the invasion began; delaying SWIFT sanctions until the atrocities started, and so on. The president needs to get out in front of Putin’s next escalation, rather than responding cautiously after the fact because his hand’s been forced.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
The left generally supports the decision not to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine.
The left generally supports the decision not to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine.
“Military utility should be the yardstick for any Western assistance now. Sending used MiGs to Ukraine from Poland, as the government in Warsaw had proposed, doesn’t meet that test. The Ukrainian air force already has several squadrons of MiGs, but they haven’t been very effective. Rather than seeking more MiGs, Ukraine should expand the tactics that have already proved successful — antitank and antiaircraft weapons, such as the Javelins and Stingers that the United States and its allies are providing in increasing numbers…
“As Western strategists deliberate responses to Putin’s aggression, they are caught between the historical analogies of the 20th century’s two world wars, which led to unspeakable suffering and the deaths of more than 100 million people. The lesson of August 1914 is to avoid lockstep escalation and seek diplomatic compromise. The lesson of Munich 1938 is to avoid appeasement and meet threats with force. As Ukraine bleeds, the United States and its allies are struggling to decide which lesson is most applicable.”
David Ignatius, Washington Post
“The Obama administration resisted providing overt lethal assistance to Ukraine, concerned that such a move by the U.S. would provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin. Even after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, President Barack Obama maintained that stance, though his administration did provide a range of other nonlethal military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine…
“That posture shifted under President Donald Trump, and… U.S. military support for Kyiv has ticked steadily upward… In his first year in office, Biden approved more military aid to Ukraine — some $650 million — than the U.S. had ever provided…
“The steady post-Cold War expansion of NATO, combined with the U.S.-backed removal of a democratically elected, pro-Russia president in 2014, along with the increased flow of weapons to Ukraine, and the bloody eight-year war against Russian separatists in the east of the country are all major aspects of Moscow’s narrative… [It is] vital that people advocating such a policy consider whether a sizable increase in U.S. and NATO weapons transfers will prolong the conflict and result in even more civilian death and destruction.”
Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept
Others argue, “Two weeks into the war, scenes of carnage like that of the Mariupol hospital have become part of the daily horror for Ukrainians that can’t be switched off. And as of Wednesday, the United Nations said that the civilian death toll after 13 days of violence in Ukraine stood at 516. Of these, 37 are children. More than 900 people are reported wounded…
“Russian forces have already bombed what were meant to be protected humanitarian corridors and launched strikes at one of Europe’s largest nuclear power plants in Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukrainian officials. They also used banned weapons such as cluster bombs, NATO Secretary General Jans Stoltenberg said Friday. After all this, I have to ask: what more do Putin’s forces need to do to jolt the world’s conscience into action? And if Ukrainian officials’ report of the bombing of a maternity and children’s hospital doesn’t do it – is there any red line that could?”
Michael Bociurkiw, CNN
