Whether supporting billions for Ukraine or wanting to pull the plug on funding Kyiv’s war against the Russian unprovoked invasion, all of the GOP debate participants got it wrong in some fashion. Of the eight candidates, former Vice President Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, Governor Ron DeSantis, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley voiced a view on the subject. The others indicated they would support more funding for Ukraine but didn’t contribute to the conversation.
Those who strongly believe in providing more US tax dollars and go along with Biden’s “as long as it takes” are wrong because that approach prolongs an activity and is not a strategy. Those favoring pulling all funding and casting Ukraine adrift to fall into Moscow’s vicious clutches are wrong because, at this point, it puts NATO and US geopolitical equities in jeopardy. It’s simply another Afghanistan withdrawal debacle in a different part of the world. All participants were wrong in common by not identifying the problem and the culprit that got the US and NATO in this mess in the first place – President Joe Biden.
Ukraine Assistance was a GOP Debate Issue
When asked to raise their hands if they would support stopping American aid to Ukraine if elected, most on the stage kept their hands down, indicating they would continue Biden’s “as long as it takes” funding. Vivek Ramaswamy, however, raised his hand quickly and did so with conviction. Ramaswamy then stated his position: “The reality is today Ukraine is not a priority for the United States of America…you cannot start another no-win war. And I do not want to get to the point where we’re sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home to protect our own borders, protect the homeland.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke in favor of continued assistance with a fight-them-over-there-and-not-here argument. Addressing Vivek Ramaswamy, he said: “The Reagan Doctrine years ago made it clear. We said if you are willing to fight the communists on your soil, we’ll give the means to fight them there so our troops don’t have to fight them.” Nikki Haley joined Pence but with a slightly different spin. She explained:
“Here you have a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug. So, when you want to talk about what has been given to Ukraine, less than three and a half percent of our defense budget has been given to Ukraine…A win for Russia is a win for China. We have to know that Ukraine is the first line of defense for us. The problem that Vivek doesn’t understand is he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia…Putin has said, if Russia, once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next.”
Both Pence and Haley provide variations of the “Putin won’t stop with Ukraine” case for continuing to fund Ukraine’s valiant defense of its homeland. However, the argument fails on two levels. First, it is a regurgitation of Biden’s no-end-in-sight shoveling American tax dollars at the Kyiv government to fight a war by proxy. Other than providing resources, the US has no control over the flow of battle. Consequently, it will take as long as it takes. That is not sustainable. Second, whether a realization of the first failure factor or not, the American people are flagging in support for Ukraine. “Fifty-six percent of Republican voters believe the US should pull back on assistance, according to a Fox News survey released this month. Meanwhile, 36% of overall registered voters think the federal government should be doing less to aid Ukraine, up 10 points since December,” Jamie Joseph reported for Fox News.
Both Sides Failed on Ukraine in the GOP Debate
Vivek Ramaswamy (L) and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (R) (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Mr. Ramaswamy’s argument fails because he offers a false choice. The US either supports closing the southern border with the money currently being spent on Ukraine or continues to fund the Kyiv government. Pence rightly pointed out the US has the resources to do both. What the former vice president neglected to say is that the reason there is inadequate funding to stem the flood of illegal aliens is the choice of the Biden administration. Ramaswamy’s perspective is also flawed because it is built on a faulty premise. He maintains that continued funding of Ukraine’s struggle will drive Russia into the arms of China, further strengthening the two country’s alliance. The argument is a “shutting the barn door after the horse has left” perspective. Moscow is already in the arms of Beijing more tightly than ever in history.
The two sides have missed the ball entirely in letting the Biden foreign policy and defense team off the hook. The assumption is that Biden is doing the best he can to assist Ukraine, whether you want him to or not. The truth is Biden has accommodated and abetted Putin’s invasion and brutal attacks on Ukraine from the first Russian soldier showing up on Ukraine’s eastern border a year before the invasion in February 2022. The Biden White House made one misstep after another as well as indecision on what weapons to provide, making what has been provided late to need. For example, Biden stopped lethal aid to Ukraine after the Biden-Putin summit in the summer of 2021 and not resuming it for nearly five months. Weeks before the invasion, Biden signaled that maybe a little incursion would be all right. Putin took that as a green light, except he had more than a little incursion in mind.
What all the GOP candidates in the debate should have been railing about is not whether to give more assistance but to make the aid being given count. As Liberty Nation has reported consistently, “The result is the US taxpayer is losing enthusiasm over Biden’s cavalier spending on Ukraine without telling the billpayers what the end game is.” Republicans are not targeting the real issue: Biden’s lack of a success-based Ukraine policy. Some problems can’t be solved simply by throwing money at them.
