Tenchu's Thoughts: Why Should We Give A Brandon About Ukraine, Part 8 - Mission Creep
Good points brought up by left-wing Slate:
Everyone Is Starting to Admit Something Frightening About Ukraine (msn.com)
Key passage from the article:
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On Thursday, Biden asked Congress for another $33 billion in aid to Ukraine—two-thirds of it for military assistance, enough to keep the fight going for another five months. This is on top of the $13.6 billion Biden requested just two months ago. To put this in perspective, the total sum slightly exceeds the $40 billion that the U.S. spent on average each year to support its own 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Biden also invoked the World War II-era Lend-Lease Act to speed up the transfer of weapons from the US military’s stockpile. That legislation authorized the lending of military equipment to foreign countries “whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.”
There it is, then, in Biden’s own proclamation: The defense of the Ukraine is “vital to the defense of the United States.”
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Like I said before, I'm on the side of Ukraine. I think PooTin is completely out of his mind and is plunging Russia into an era of unprecedented darkness.
But I'm starting to become uneasy about Brandon's mission creep, and I'm not alone.
Until now, it was easy to cheer for Ukraine as Russia committed a plethora of unforced errors. There was even talk about Zelensky maybe being able to beat back Russia once and for all simply with the sheer force of good will.
But as we start increasing our aid to Ukraine, from hundreds of millions of dollars into the tens of billions, I have to wonder what our overall strategy is.
Is it to weaken the Russian military?
Is it to teach PooTin a lesson?
Is it to bloody his nose?
If so, then Ukraine will indeed turn into a proxy war between Russia and America, which is EXACTLY what PooTin wanted.
Now that might not be a bad thing on our end, but it's going to take a LOT more resolve than what our current leadership is demonstrating.
Because what will we do if PooTin decides to arm Cuba with missiles, just like Khrushchev did vs. JFK?
What if PooTin arms Venezuela?
What if PooTin trades nuclear technology and materiel w/ Iran?
What if PooTin starts beefing up the North Korean military with more modern weapons?
How will PooTin's propaganda machine spin this to the Chinese and the Indians?
And ultimately, what will happen if all of this does indeed lead to World War III, as Brandon once warned us about?
I really don't think Brandon appreciates the risk that he is taking with his mission creep.
Now maybe he'll get lucky. Maybe he's counting on the notion that PooTin has already overextended himself and can't possibly escalate the overall conflict beyond Ukraine.
But he really needs to make that clear, especially as he sells the war to a public that right now disapproves of his job performance.
Until then, he continues to follow the foreign policy of his predecessor, Barack Obama.
And that policy is what I like to call "leading from his behind."
Tenchusatsu |