Posted on 05/17/2022 7:26:13 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
America’s involvement in Ukraine presents a clarifying contrast for the 2022 elections.
The old guard, establishment GOP supports plunging America deeply into a regional conflict in Eurasia. Interventionists like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Kevin McCarthy lock arms with radical Democrats to fund an escalation of a war for the eastern border of Ukraine. Meanwhile, America’s own border has been vaporized. Literally millions of unvetted illegals stream into the United States, welcomed in by our political elites.
Ukraine, in fact, proved pivotal in the come-from-behind victory of JD Vance in the Ohio GOP primary for the US Senate. Powerful globalist forces poured massive resources into advertising against Vance. Ukraine became the starkest policy difference of that tough primary race, with Vance insisting that America work to de-escalate the crisis. He also boldly asserted that the war there, while tragic, involves no strategic US national interest. Vance himself was deployed to Iraq as a US Marine and knows well the realities of unnecessary war. Though the corporate media and establishment GOP howled at Vance’s America First foreign policy of realism and restraint, the voters of Ohio rallied to this agenda.
Upcoming races could unfold similarly.
At the voter level, the GOP has been transformed into a pro-worker, populist nationalist party. But at the officeholder and donor level, the battle rages on between the throwback Bush-style globalists and the Trumpian patriotic populists.
Like Vance, two other military veterans, America First candidates – Jake Bequette and Joe Kent — make Ukraine de-escalation an important pillar of their outsider, renegade campaigns.
In Arkansas, Jake Bequette takes on career politician, incumbent Senator John Boozman.
After more than two decades in Congress, Boozman remains an unremarkable and dependably establishment figure who poorly represents his deeply red, America First home state. The Arkansas state motto is literally “Regnat Populus” or “The People Rule.”
But Boozman obediently joins D.C.’s escalation chorus, declaring “the United States must continue to provide Ukraine with… military and humanitarian assistance.” He also appears ready to approve the mammoth $40 billion aid package passed by Nancy Pelosi’s House. Only a handful of Republican senators have voiced opposition. Boozman is not one of them.
In substance and style, Bequette provides a stark contrast to backbench Boozman. Jake excelled on the gridiron as a third generation University of Arkansas Razorback football player. After his all-SEC college career, he played in the pros, earning a Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots. After football, he volunteered for the Army and served America in the 101st Airborne, qualified as a Ranger, and was deployed to Iraq.
On Ukraine, Bequette insists on the America First approach espoused by President Trump who declared: “it doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement.” Pushing back against the Washington war machine, Bequette observes: “the people of Arkansas could sure use $40 billion to be better spent here at home.” He has further asserted that Ukraine “is a massive money laundering operation for the DC uniparty.”
Like Vance and Bequette, Joe Kent in the state of Washington takes on the establishment as a bold outsider. Kent challenges incumbent Congressman Jaime Herrera Beutler, who voted to impeach Donald Trump. Herrera Beutler also voted in favor of the giant, taxpayer-funded military escalation package for Ukraine, supporting Pelosi and establishment Republicans against braver members like Jim Jordan, Jim Banks, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Informed by his family’s sacrifices, Kent insists on prioritizing our various systemic crises here at home, and not costly globalist interventions. He posted on social media:
“40 billion to Ukraine is the same scam we saw over & over again in the last 2 decades of endless wars. The uniparty sends $ to wars to line their pockets w/ $ from defense contractors. This system is so powerful our leaders don’t care if our babies starve, war is their priority.”
The Vance playbook will work in other GOP primaries.
JD, Jake, and Joe represent exactly the kind of bold outsiders with the guts to truly defang the Washington permanent political class. America needs all three of these veteran warriors in the Congress where they will prevent sending other young Americans to unnecessary wars.
Retarded pacificist Nativist want to reverse America’s hard won Cold War win and give the Russian Empire control of Europe.
And Ukraine is firmly in Europe. Not in Siberia or Asia.
Say hello to Brandon and Soros and Schwab for me.
Retarded pacificist Nativist want to reverse America’s hard won Cold War win and give the Russian Empire control of Europe.
*********
Not our fight. The rats nest governing the EU is no better than Putin. Ideologically, the Cold War socialism that used to control Russia before Yeltsin is now controlling Europe and seeking to control the USA.
FYI - The Cold War ended >30 years ago. Marxism collapsed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, although it exists now in Washington DC. Can't you find something else to war-monger about? How about re-fighting the Civil War? You would probably like that.
“...and give the Russian Empire control of Europe.”
_______________________________________________________
Oh and what a might, might empire it is. It looks like it can barely handle fighting Ukraine.
Man, that hard won Cold War win has been completely urinated away. Instead of adding your rationale, you merely stooped to personal attacks.
Here's how I roll, along with my fellow conservatives. 42 years ago, I was in my 4th year in Germany, serving in an Air Defense Artillery battalion: 6/56 ADA, motto "Night Hides Not".
I lived in a German town 30 miles off base, which hastened and improved my German language skills. My neighbors were terrified of Ronald Reagan, and many pleaded with me to vote for Jimmy Carter.
In the weeks leading up to the election, you could find me at the neighborhood gasthaus, advocating for the election of Ronald Reagan. I never met the man, but I knew who he was. He was my former governor, and he had a broad history of speeches and columns. I was able to apply my excellent education to parry the arguments posed by my neighbors...and I did it in German.
Checkmate arrived on Inauguration Day, when the hostages were released by Iran, first stop Ramstein Air Base. Later that day, I stopped at the gasthaus for abendessen, i.e. dinner.
I was surprised, and honored, to be invited to sit at the stammtisch, a table reserved for family and close friends of the family. I cherish that honor to this day.
Back to the topic, this rush to flood Ukraine with $40 Billion in arms and pork shows the lack of serious thought by our politicians in DC. Apparently, there are no strings attached to this "aid", and nothing to indicate there will be accountability for these funds.
If they think this "package" will divert our attention to the fiasco on the Southern Border, it's not going to happen. I received a video from a good friend who works for a not to be named federal agency. It's about a minute, showing an 18 wheeler unloading its human cargo just across our border in Texas. I counted over 3 dozen illegal immigrants. That will be repeated dozens of times in the near future, thanks to the fecklessness of Mayorkas and his minions.
Have a good day!
So you want one empire to replace another?
And do you want it to sell its soul and destroy any claim it has over being a Representative Republic?
Do you want it involved in coups/Color Revolutions like in 2014 in Ukraine?
Do you want the Odumbas of the world saying the U.S. will lead from behind as NATO goes rogue and offensively bombs Libya when unprovoked, Lybia attacked no NATO member, on unproven allegations Gaddafi was going to kill thousands of his own people?
Stop being like McCain.
NATO was built as a counter to the USSR and yet after the dissolution of the USSR kept pushing east with the U.S. building upmteen bases around the world yet flips out when China builds a base in the Solomon Islands.
People in the U.S. speak of nations having the right to self-determination (Ukraine) yet say no to the Solomon Islands having self-determination.
Here’s a solution: Russia, China, and the U.S. all withdraw all military back within their borders and NATO goes back to its 1947 size at the very least.
Something seems like $40 billion is just the start, not the final price tag.
“In the short term, Ukraine needs $4 billion to $5 billion per month in funding, Denys Shmyhal said at a ministerial roundtable Thursday organized to support the country at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.”
Even if you buy the writer's doubtful premise that voters based their decisions on Ukraine, that is still utter crap.
It was a five-way race, with every candidate except Vance supporting more aid to Ukraine. In other words, only 31.3% of Ohio Republicans voted for Vance and opposing aid to Ukraine, and the rest voted in favor of aid to Ukraine. If anything, the Ohio Senate GOP race proves that opposing aid to Ukraine is a minority, bordering on fringe position.
And exactly how do you propose to make Russia withdraw, to stay within its own borders moving forward, and not simply gradually gobble up all those countries?
Through diplomacy. Unlike the kind of diplomacy, shown in recently revealed recordings where James Baker and his German counterpart agreed that NATO wouldn’t move one inch closer east to Russia in exchange for German reunification, and it wasn’t kept.
The kind of diplomacy where we still have a strong military while we/NATO don’t keep expanding NATO and bases worldwide based upon an assumption that Russia will seek to expand again based upon no evidence or proof to see into the future when this started in the 90’s.
And when was Russia expanding during the 90’s? Looks like it was just the U.S. and NATO doing this so your question is misplaced.
We have three possible scenarios right now:
Deescalation by all parties.
A new cold war with Russia, China, and many of the 80%+/- of countries that don’t support sanction on Russia when this time we have a U.S. 30 trillion in debt unlike during the first cold war and we can’t even fix supply chain issues now.
We end up in a nuclear war.
Personally, as an Ohio voter more aware of issues than most, I didn't know about the candidates' differences on Ukraine until the day before the election. I suspect the majority of Ohio voters weren't aware of it either. Activists were, but the one of the mill primary voter was not. So, I disagree with the article's premise that the election tells us anything at all about Ukraine. But if it does, what it tells is not good news for Vance.
Assuming you could get the Russians to agree to that, what would prevent the Russians from agreeing in bad faith, but invading those same nations a few years down the road once they are no longer under a NATO security umbrella?
We know from their clear breach of the 1993 Budapest agreements that the Russians have absolutely no problem invading another nation despite written agreements to the contrar
Unlike the kind of diplomacy, shown in recently revealed recordings where James Baker and his German counterpart agreed that NATO wouldn’t move one inch closer east to Russia in exchange for German reunification, and it wasn’t kept.
That's ridiculous. The Soviets demanded written guarantees that NATO would not be expanded, and we refused. What do you think the Soviets inferred from that refusal? And why do you think the Soviets withdrew anyway, despite not receiving those written promises?
The Soviets and everyone else knows that any kind of oral assurance by a government is good for, at best, however long that particular Administration remains in power. If you want long-term security you have to get it in writing.
Of course, as we know from the Budapest Agreements, even getting the Russians to sign written guarantees is meaningless.
You speak of bad faith when neither the U.S. nor NATO has a leg to stand on there and it has been the U.S./NATO warmongering in Iraq, Yemen, Libya, etc, and starting this mess after NATO broke its promise to not move one inch east towards Russia. It has been the U.S./NATO building an empire. We need no nation building an empire though.
But you like Bush and Obama/Biden engaging in wars of aggression as you don’t speak out against them. Sad.
Get back to you later. Gotta go.
Secondly, you have no evidence Russia would have invaded all of those former Siviet bloc countries.
But we do have evidence of NATO continually expanding up to Russia’s borders when they promised not to.
Third, there is evidence that NATO has been poking the bear, which isn’t allowed according to Jesus’ Golden Rule:
WION, Gravitas Plus: Did NATO push Ukraine into war?
“Ukraine conflict has been ‘westsplained’ enough. On Gravitas Plus, Palki Sharma tells you how Western arrogance & NATO’s expansionism are also to blame, how their actions precipitated the crisis in Ukraine.”
None of your little Anti-American rant addressed the point about Russia reneging on any deal. They violated the Budapest Agreement with Ukraine without batting an eye, and there is zero reason to believe they wouldn't do the same here.
You bashing the U.S. doesn't make Russia any more trustworthy. If you want to consider both countries untrustworthy, fine. But all that would mean is that your proposed deal doesn't work on either end.
Fourth, it is on audio from recently released statements around the time that a verbal promise was made. So perhaps thar was good enough.
Fifth, you think otherwise and justify the U.S. not giving a written agreement. Where do you find in heaven or earth to justify running roughshod over other nations? People like you lead to nuke war. No nation needs to run roughshod over another nation.
Sixth, the Minsk agreement was broken by Ukraine, because Zelenskyy is evil. Putin is bad too, but you’re a hypocrite so what can you say?
Adios, Golden Rule breaking justifier.
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