President Joe Biden, 80, signed on to an 11th hour, 45-day stopgap funding bill without Ukraine to keep the government running until Nov. 17. For some unknown reason, Biden has made funding a proxy war against the Kremlin his top foreign policy priority, spending untold billions on an unending war now in its 19 month. With peace proposals from France, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and others, Biden continues to fund the Kiev government to battle the Kremlin. Biden calls the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian invasion an “unprovoked and unjustified” naked land grab, something that doesn’t match the record. For months before the Russian invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Biden to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine because the U.S. arming Ukraine with cash-and-lethal weapons was considered by the Kremlin a threat to Russian national security.
For months leading up to Feb. 24 invasion, Zelensky provoked Putin, demanding fast-track membership in NATO. Zelensky didn’t get at the time that he didn’t meet NATO’s standards both in terms of democracy, but, more importantly, he was at war with the Russian Federation. Ukraine’s 64-year-old Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky that joining NATO would trigger Article 5, requiring NATO to fight Ukraine’s battle with Russia. Stoltenberg disappointed Zelensky, while the former comedic actor provoked Putin for months. Zelensky wants the Crimean Peninsula returned to Ukraine after a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2016 only days after the Sochi Winter Olympics, to protect his Sevastopol Black Sea naval base.
Biden never mentions the CIA-backed coup under his watch as Vice President that toppled the Kremlin-backed government. Biden and former President Barack Obama lent no assistance to the pro-Western government led by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to oust Russian from Crimea. Biden’s obsession with Ukraine looks like a personal vendetta with Putin or possibly concern about blackmail for his 53-year-old son Hunter’s corrupt business dealings in Ukraine. Ukraine holds no national security significance to the United States, despite Biden’s statements that the Ukraine War prevents Putin from taking over more countries in Europe. Biden knows that NATO, not bankrupt and war-ravaged Ukraine, defends Europe from any attack by a foreign enemy like the Kremlin. Yet Biden and Zelensky keep telling the world that Ukraine defends European democracy.
If Biden thought that Ukraine was his top priority, why did he sign a stopgap bill that omitted $6 billion in Ukraine funding? “We cannot under any circumstances allow American aid for Ukraine to be interrupted,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room after he signed the bill not excluding Ukraine funding. Biden’s Ukraine policy, funding a costly proxy war, makes no sense, telling the world the Russian President Vladimir Putin is a menace to European democracy. If Biden really felt that way, why would he not commit U.S. troops to evict Russia from Ukraine’s sovereign territory? Biden told the press Sept. 19, 2022 that he would send U.S. troops to defend Taiwan against a possible Chinese invasion. So, if Biden thought Putin were really such a menace, why would he not commit troops to Ukraine? Many elected officials in Congress think that Russia wants to take over Europe.
Biden thinks that there’s a consensus in Congress on helping Ukraine. “The vast majority of both parties—Democrats and Republicans, Senate and House—support helping Ukraine and the brutal aggression that is being thrust upon them by Russia,” Biden said. “Stop playing games, get this done,” referring to a new spending bill that funds the Ukraine War. Members of Congress don’t question how Biden has wrecked decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with Russia, putting the world at war and damaging the global economy promoting a Russian oil boycott. Biden takes no responsibility to the record high oil prices or the resulting inflation that forced the Federal Reserve Board to hike interest rates 11 times over the last year, driving the Federal Funds rate to 5.5%, Prime Interest Rate to 8.5% and mortgage interest rates to over 8%, harming U.S. consumers and GDP.
Biden’s obsession with Ukraine can’t be explained by any national security argument. Zelensky tells U.S. Congress and European Union [EU] that if Ukraine loses the war, it will start WW III. Biden and Zelensky show no interest in ceasefire and peace talks, something urged by many European, Asia and African countries. No one in Congress has questioned Biden’s reasons for continuing the Ukraine War. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said there can be no blank check for Ukraine. Biden thinks it’s playing games to ask for how long the war will last. Biden and Zelensky gives no timetable for ending the Ukraine conflict, only saying that if Ukraine loses, WW III would follow. McCarthy says he wants to know what “victory” looks like in Ukraine because, so far, there’s no end in sight to the war. Biden can’t explain why he’s asking U.S. citizens to sacrifice for Ukraine.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnllineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
