Statements by President Biden’s administration that money for the war effort is literally running out confirm that the war is slowly coming to an end for the US – Responsible Statecraft.
It is particularly significant that on 6 December the Senate did not pass an aid package that was supposed to send another $60 billion to Ukraine. On top of that, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that Biden even took to the airwaves on Wednesday to warn of war with NATO if the funding is not approved.
At the same time, the Republican side has been disapproving the aid for months, which perhaps explains the declining importance of Ukraine.
The conflict in Ukraine has provided a glimpse into the competing worldviews of Chris Christie and Nikki Haley and their chief campaigner, Vivek Ramaswamy, in which a single point of helplessness over Ukraine converges.
Here’s what Nikki Haley has to say:
The problem is, you have to see that all of these are related. If you look at the fact Russia was losing that war with Ukraine, Putin had hit rock bottom, they had raised the draft age to 65. He was getting drones and missiles – drones from Iran, missiles from North Korea. And so what happened when he hit rock bottom, all of a sudden his other friend, Iran, Hamas goes and invades Israel and butchers those people on Putin’s birthday. There is no one happier right now than Putin because all of the attention America had on Ukraine suddenly went to Israel. And that’s what they were hoping is going to happen. We need to make sure that we have full clarity, that there is a reason again that Taiwanese want to help Ukrainians because they know if Ukraine wins China won’t invade Taiwan. There’s a reason the Ukrainians want to help Israelis because they know that if Iran wins, Russia wins. These are all connected.
Of course, the conflict in the Middle East has done a great favour to Putin and the Russian army, which has been conducting non-stop offensive operations since then. The Ukrainian offensive, already unsuccessful, cannot now be reasoned with, leading to more and more talk of ending the war one way or another, as aid is not expected anytime soon in the amounts previously mentioned.
Vivek Ramaswamy responds, particularly summarising the state of Joe Biden and the situation at all:
“I want to say one thing about that tie to Ukraine. Foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom. I was the first person to say we need a reasonable peace deal in Ukraine. Now a lot of the neocons are quietly coming along to that position with the exceptions of Nikki Haley and Joe Biden, who still support this, what I believe, is pointless war in Ukraine.”
Chris Christie replies:
“Let me just say something here, you know, his reasonable peace deal in Ukraine. Give them all the land they’ve already stolen. Promise Putin you’ll never put Ukraine in Russia, and then trust Putin not to have a relationship with China.”
At the same time, the US is full of hope in its talks with Ukraine, but the actual situation does not seem as bright as it was in the spring. Although Ukraine received tanks, everything it needs to wage a victorious war, everything is now left behind, as maintaining “as long as it takes” is not such a relevant formulation now, no matter how it sounds from the White House representatives.
Ramaswamy, for his part, confirms the bleakness of the situation:
“These people are lying. These are the same people who told you about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify that invasion didn’t know the first thing about it if they send thousands of our sons and daughters to go die. The same people who told you the same in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is still in charge. Twenty years later, seven trillion of our national debt due to these toxic neocons.”
As an outcome, Ukraine’s economy is now in such a state that the West is forced to support it, and NATO is promising more troops and weapons that it doesn’t even seem to have; even the spectre of the old argument that the free world is at stake has disappeared.
