In a bizarre twist of bipartisanship, 76-year-old Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and 67-year-old Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) visited with 45-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. Both pledged their undying support to Zelensky in his quest to vanquish the Russian Federation, showing there’s little hope in the Ukraine War ending anytime soon. President Joe Biden, 79, despised by Republicans for just about everything, has the unanimous backing for the Ukraine War. Biden said March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that he wanted to see Putin removed as Russian president. Members on both sides of the aisle, swept up in Washington’s anti-Russian hysteria, all back Biden’s proxy war against 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Forget about the war’s effect on global inflation in energy prices, driving the U.S. and European Union dangerously close to recession.
No one has said with any conviction that the Ukraine War is pure madness for the U.S., joining the fight to take down the Russian Federation. Biden has unequivocal support from both sides of the aisle, with Blumenthal andGraham pledging unlimited arms-and-cash to Kiev to vanquish the Russian army. No one in Congress admits Biden’s unadulterated failure in Ukraine, supplying Kiev the most sophisticated weapons while watching Ukraine lose over 25% of its sovereign territory, including the entire Black Sea coast to the Kremlin. Now Blumenthal and Graham wish to sponsor a Senate bill defining Russia a sponsor of state terrorism, much the same as Iran and North Korea. Can you imagine, 31-year-old WNBA Britney Griner begging Biden to get her out of a Russian jail while Blumenthal and Graham work on a bipartisan Senate bill to humiliate Putin and the Russian Federation?
All the talk of the White House putting on a full-court press to get Griner and possibly 52-year-old Paul Whelan out of jail while two key members of the U.S. Senate want to brand Moscow as state sponsor of terror. How’s that supposed to help ongoing efforts to spring Griner from jail? If that weren’t bad enough, the top man at the State Department, 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met yesterday with 72-year-old Russian Foreign Minister Seregy Lavrov at a G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Blinken used his time to lambaste Russia for its Ukraine War, spending zero time on figuring out a prisoner swap to get Griner out of jail. Blumenthal and Graham have done nothing to help Griner and Whelan, making their long stays in Russian custody all but guaranteed. Graham thinks there are plenty of votes in the U.,S. Senate to back labeling Russia as a state sponsor of terror.
Zelensky told Blumenthal and Graham that Putin was guilty of state sponsored terrorism, hitting civilian structures, like schools, daycare centers, medical clinics, hospitals, etc. during their rampage in Ukraine’s territories. Zelensky agreed wholeheartedly with Blumenthal and Graham’s efforts to label with Senate legislation the Kremlin as a state sponsor of terror. “If that isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is,” Zelensky said, referring Bucha, where shallow graves were found with Ukrainian corpses. “Long-range artillery is very, very important. But so is the hand-to-hand insurgency that we are hoping to see in Eastern Ukraine, in the territory that’s already been occupied by the Russians,” Blumenthal said, admitting that much of the Uraainian territory has been seized by the Russian army. Blumenthal backs giving Ukraine HIMARS long-range defense systems.
How ironic that Blumenthal and Graham agree with giving Ukraine advanced long-range missile defense systems but want assurance from Kiev that they won’t use the weapons to attack Russian territory. Zelensky has asked for U.S. and NATO troops since the outset of the war Feb. 24, all rejected by the West because Kiev was not part of NATO. But since war began, Biden said sending U.S. or NATO troops would start WW III on the European Continent. So Zelensky has had to fight the Russian Federation with his own troops with U.S. and NATO arms. Blumenthal told Zelensky he can use HIMARS and harpoon anti-ship missiles as long as he does not attack Russian territory. Much can happen in the fog of war, especially if Zelensky gets desperate, knowing that he’s losing the fight. Giving Ukraine advance missile systems already signals that the U.S. is involved militarily.
Graham told Zelensky that with the new advanced U.S. weapons systems, there’s chance in the next 60 days that Ukraine can turn around the war. “We have a chance here in the next 60 days . . . the decisions we make can turn the tide of this war in favor of Ukraine,” said Graham, repeating the exact White House talking points. Nothing has worked so far, with Zelensky losing over 25% of Russian territory, including the entire Black Sea coast. Graham has all the intel to know that Zelensky—and Biden—have lost the war badly. If Ukraine starts hitting Russian targets with HIMARS or other advance weapons systems, then Putin said he will escalate the war. Biden and Zelensky think they’re wearing down the Russian military. But clearly the opposite is happening. Putin escalates the fighting when he sees more resistance by Kiev. Putin warned yesterday that things could get a lot worse for Ukraine.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
