“I think that when someone like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin sees Obama being indecisive, I think that whets his appetite to create more trouble in the area. And I think if we were to arm the Ukrainians, I think that would send a strong signal to him that he shouldn’t be going any further,”
2015 radio interview of Congressman Ron DeSantis criticizing Obama for not taking stronger action against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea.
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests… – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Fox News on March 6th, 2023
"Our objective in Ukraine is to help and secure Europe, but Europe isn't helping itself… They are relying on the United States to largely do it for them. That is very unfair to us."
Donald Trump on ending US support for Ukraine, March 13th.
“The last time someone in Europe claimed the land of others, and tried to take it by force of arms, was Adolf Hitler’s attempt to build a Third Reich. Those who miscalculated Hitler’s intentions paved the way for a wider war and missed many opportunities to stop him early on…now is not the time to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
A tweet from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responding to DeSantis’ statement above.
So, the top pictures show infamous appeaser UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who passively allowed Hitler to annex Austria and the Czech Sudetenland without lifting a finger… as Hitler got increasingly emboldened and invaded Poland… and soon most of the rest of Europe. WWII ensued. I didn’t add Xi Jinping to the above photos, although his increasingly strident statements about invading Taiwan and dominating the seas near China also threaten Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines. As the two leading GOP presidential candidates square off, effectively in support of appeasing Russia and its expansionist aspirations, trust me, both Putin and Xi are listening and smiling.
These two GOP candidates have given Putin every reason to keep fighting, to avoid peace at all costs, to interfere in our election on a grander scale than we have ever witnessed and to wait to see if a “friendly” isolationist President will abandon supporting democracy (aren’t Trump and DeSantis doing that here anyway?) to allow violent autocrats to use their militaries to attack our allies and pull the US away from any semblance of global leadership. However, there are large segments of the GOP contingent in Congress who disagree with US’ decreasing its commitment to Ukraine, like Lindsey Graham quoted above, but they are hardly at the fore of the race for the Republican nomination.
We are also witnessing a change in Donald Trump’s position on a number of issues. Watching DeSantis’ success with the evangelical base in his crusade against “wokeness,” if elected, Trump has now sworn to pull back federal funds from any educational institution of school district that teaches any form of “critical race theory.” Trump, who faces what could be a flood of criminal indictments, just might be pulled away from that nomination by MAGA constituents who see a less negatively entangled frontrunner like DeSantis. That “stolen election” mantra has lost its traction, so Trump brags that he is the only person who can stop WWIII by pulling us out of supporting Ukraine.
Given the litany of contrary quotes above, the driving force behind even the GOP’s turning against support for Ukraine seems more like “we are against anything that Joe Biden is for.” In Trump’s case, already pressing his case to his base that he is their “retribution” against Democrats, it may indeed be a punishment to Ukraine’s President, Volodymr Zelensky, who balked at Trump’s “request” that Ukraine mount a detailed investigation against Joe and Hunter Biden in a July 25, 2019 phone call. That call that led to Trump’s first impeachment. The subtext? Cooperate with the US and investigate or those weapons Zelensky wanted just might be delayed (which they in fact were).
Trump cozied up to Vladimir Putin repeatedly, so the Russians see Trump as their champion, and DeSantis as heading in their direction. They do not want Biden or any other pro-Ukraine Democrat anywhere near the White House after the 2024 election. US intelligence agencies have noted a distinct ramp-up of Russia-originated bots targeting voters who might be “convinced” to move into the Trump or DeSantis camp… using the same campaign of mis- and disinformation that typified Russian election interference in 2016 and 2020… only more of it.
Ron DeSantis has no serious expertise in foreign relations, and Trump’s notion is guided by how he functioned as a negotiating businessman, analyzing dollars more than purpose. Applying business analytics to governance and international relations might have convinced Franklin Delano Roosevelt to negotiate an immediate peace with Japan rather than retaliate with military counterstrikes. After all, wars are expensive, and success is not easily measured in dollars.
As Japan took Singapore and Hong Kong, heading toward Burman, Indochina and India… with a sharp eye on Australia… imagine a DeSantis/Trump sentiment saying it’s not our fight. Let them duke it out. Until one day Japan and Germany might have become big enough to take on the United States with all those yummy oil fields, Wall Street and massively productive farms. Or Russia and China. For a detailed look at Russia’s unabashed territorial expansionism, see my March 4th Next? blog. Currently, China is focused on absorbing Taiwan… after it violated its treaty agreements and crushed the legal systems and democracy in both Hong Kong and Macau. Want to believe that our ceasing support for Ukraine will have no consequences for our own national security? I’m not that naïve! Put back from Ukraine and watch the plunge of America’s status as a global power.
I’m Peter Dekom, and our values, our way of life and our frail democracy can never be assumed, taken for granted or simply left unprotected… anywhere.
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