Aid to Ukraine Must Be Approved Forthwith

The entire country (with the exception of those whose goal is to cause anarchy and chaos) breathed a sigh of relief thanks to the last-minute passage by the House and Senate of a bill to fund the government for 45 days this past weekend. However, there was a glaring omission in the bill’s 71 pages: The lack of funding earmarked for additional military aid for Ukraine to assist in its fight against the barbaric invasion of that country by the sociopathic dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

Although substantial majorities of both parties in both the House and the Senate favor our continued and future financial support for the Ukrainians in their struggle for freedom, the funding proposed by the Pentagon for more weaponry and other aid did not make it into the final bill that was signed by President Biden. The small minority of legislators who almost crashed the government this weekend also are opposed to providing the Ukrainians with further aid for reasons known only to themselves and it was to this small group that legislative leaders kow-towed in the final bill by excluding financial assistance to Ukraine.

The news footage each and every night reveals the ongoing atrocities being committed by Putin against the Ukrainian people. Right now, they and they alone are standing up to the sociopathic Putin, demonstrating to the world that their freedom is worth fighting and dying for. 

In addition, the united front of America and its Western allies against Putin’s invasion is signaling to the Chinese that they should not expect that the U.S. and its Pacific allies will stand by if they decide to invade Taiwan or continue to control the South China Sea with outlandish claims about their “territorial waters.”

Anyone who asserts that it is time for a “peaceful resolution” to the war in Ukraine is playing into Putin’s hands. Putin wants to swallow Ukraine whole. He already had annexed a large chunk of eastern Ukraine and the Crimea when he undertook his invasion. There is no reason to think that Putin would come to the peace table now and even if he did, does anyone seriously believe that he would honor any peace deal?

We live in a world where people expect everything to be done fast and patience is not a virtue. But the simple reality is that Putin is playing a waiting game, all the while destroying and killing as much as possible, hoping that support for Ukraine by the free world will wane and eventually his tanks will roll into Kyiv. The only means by which Putin can succeed is if Ukraine’s allies throw in the towel — a move that not only would be devastating for the Ukrainians, but that would prove to have significant adverse consequences for our own foreign policy.

We urge our members of Congress to work to support a new package of aid to Ukraine ASAP. America needs to show potential dictators   that the free world will stand united against their tyrannical impulses.