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Talk to the American People about Ukraine, Joe
America needs to hear from its own president, not Volodymyr Zelensky, about what is going on in Ukraine.
America just can’t get enough of Endless War it seems; otherwise why would it keep getting into one of them? Leaving aside ancient historical examples like Korea (still ongoing) and Vietnam (result was a complete defeat of the U.S. after decades of conflict preceeded by years of U.S. nearly completely funding the failed French war effort there) we have the more modern examples of Iraq and Afghanistan. The former sputtered to defeat for the U.S. after decades of war (counting Gulf War I and the bombing campaigns which accomplished little permanently and Gulf War II which led to empowering Iran in Iraq via Gulf War 2.5) and the latter concluding decisively on the TV August 2021 with the symbolically cluster-futzed final evacuation (memories of Saigon.) Each war started with no real practical goal in mind (remember nation building? The War on Terror, i.e., a war against a tactic?)
With that kind of track record you’d think America would take a breather from Endless War, you know, take a few years off to get its head together, maybe work the fentanyl problem, get the economy together so people other than Democratic commentators can see it growing. But no. Just a scant six months after hosing the last Afghan dust off our boots the U.S. finds itself mired in Ukraine. No clear, realistic goal? Check. Open-ended commitment of U.S. resources? Check. Potential to suck U.S. forces directly into the conflict? Check. Dubious one man celebrity leader? Check. Unclear as hell how Ukraine fits into our national interest, how much more time and money will be expected to achieve whatever our objectives are, and how much Europe plans to contribute to the war taking place in its backyard? Check.
It is time for President Biden to explain some things to the American people.
1) What is the endgame, Joe? Is it democracy in Ukraine? If so, you’re off to a rough start. Zelensky over the past two years conscripted his own citizens, kept young males from the freedom to travel, done away with opposition parties, canceled all future elections indefinitely, consolidated all TV platforms in Ukraine into one state broadcast, dealt harshly with dissidents, and assumed practically one-man rule over the nation, certainly its war. Plus there’s all that about units of the Ukrainian military being actual Nazis. So Joe, what is the plan to bring democracy to Ukraine? It seems only that things have gotten worse since the U.S. intervened to prevent the Russians from doing many of the things Zelensky has already done to his own country. FYI Joe, you’ll recall military imposition of democratic values historically has failed.
2) Or Joe, is the point of the war to force Russia out of what Ukraine claims as its territory? Does that include the territory the U.S. gifted a few years ago to the Russians in the Crimea when under another president all this seemed much less dire? Or just to retake the land back which Russia gained after February 2022? That was the point of the Great 2023 Spring Counter-Offensive, right? Be up front with the propaganda-weary American people about how things are going; the Ukrainians in their offensive using most of the conventional ground-force arms in America’s arsenal, gained back only 143 square miles. The Russians, supposedly on the defensive, gained 331 square miles of land. With the Counter-Offensive now clearly a failure, what is the next step? Is there a plan? How do we define win? “As long as it takes” is not a viable option, it’s just a recipe for another Vietnam, another Afghanistan.
3) What role if any will diplomacy with Russia play in achieving this end game, whatever it is? Have the Russians sought to meet and discuss the war? Has the U.S. offered to meet? If not, why not? Diplomacy can end wars. We know your secretary of state can pick a fight but can he stop one, the real test for his profession? Because it is complicated, we’ll give you a pass on how our own government helped create this situation in the first place, something the American people need to know more about at some point.
4) Speaking of things the American public needs to know about, who blew up the Nordstrom pipeline between Russia and Germany? Is this the kind of war America is in that we would blow up the pipeline to press Germany to further join the fight? Or is it the kind of war where Ukraine would somehow muster the technical know-how to blow up the pipeline to force Germany to further join the fight? Why would the Russians blow up a pipeline that supplies their gas to Germany, a significant source of revenue? Is this war that dirty?
5) The U.S. has appropriated $113 billion dollars to Ukraine, paying for everything from tanks to ambulance drivers’ regular salaries. And what else Joe? What systems are in place for accountability for this money? Could it be that more money simply deepens the quagmire and pushes us closer to direct conflict with Russia? You’ve spoken in the past how accountability lies with the Inspectors General at the Department of Defense, State, and USAID. They point to “a decade of shared experience gained from joint oversight of eight different overseas contingency operations, forgetting the spectacular failure of oversight of these overseas contingency operations,” and how the same agencies covered up waste, fraud, and mismanagement and deliberately mislead the American public on the progress made in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Joe, you need to address opposition to the more formal structure of establishing a Special Inspector General for Ukraine (SIGUR), such as SIGIR in Iraq and SIGAR in Afghanistan. “As much as it takes” is a blank check the American taxpayer needs to know more about. Senator Rand Paul in the spring placed a temporary hold on a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, demanding unsuccessfully Congress insert a provision into the aid package creating an inspector general to oversee the distribution of the aid. As SIGAR noted, “While Afghanistan and Ukraine are very different countries with a history of facing very different threats, many of the challenges U.S. agencies faced in Afghanistan—coordinating efforts, dealing with corruption, and effectively monitoring and evaluating projects and programs—will be the same as the ones they will face in Ukraine.” And speaking of corruption, your own State Department has singled out Ukraine for its corrupt practices, which as you know from Iraq and Afghanistan will seriously dilute any aid. Why resist additional oversight?
6) We know there are American Special Forces on the ground in Ukraine, and America forces in command and control roles in the ongoing fight. Are there redlines, either promised to Zelensky or just for yourself, Joe, to trigger a larger U.S. direct role in Ukraine? What would it take to have more “advisers” on the ground, or American air power, or American leadership embedded with Ukrainian troops in the field? At what point in escalation would you agree Congress needs to formally weigh in? And no fair making it all OK by calling the deployments “NATO” instead of American. A Russia-NATO scuffle is a Russia-U.S. scuffle.
No more malarkey, Joe. Time to talk to the American people about Ukraine.
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Rich Bauer said...
1Given the invasion has cost the lives of over 100,000 Russkies and created 200,000 Russkie amputees, maybe it is time for Putin to talk to the Russkie people why he got Russia into a quagmire. NATO expansion wasn’t in the plans, right? Begging North Korea for help is humiliating. Putin may be waiting for Trump to return to the White House to bail him out. Unfortunately, Trump will be looking for someone to bail him out if more of his stooges agree to plea.
10/20/23 5:47 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2Time to talk to America about Ukraine, really? Talk to the American people about what exactly? Half of them are convinced Trump won the last election. Reality has no room in their worldview. Nothing is going to change when the idiots they voted to represent them in Washington couldn’t find their asses with both hands. Their fearless and clueless leader from Ohio just lost his third match wrestling with his idiots. These clowns couldn’t pass anything but gas. Do you think these same clowns who are bogged down in a stalemate in DC are gonna do anything about the stalemate in Ukraine and Putinland?
10/21/23 11:52 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
3Biden’s pitch -which seems sadly to be working with pathetic and scared Americans is the billions sent to Ukraine and Israel are meant to save American lives. That is insulting to me personally. So are we incapable and unwilling of fighting on our own soil against Pentagon designated adversaries? I’m not the type to hide in the skirts of mercenaries and proxies. That cowardly tactic understandably appeals to the draft dodging Joe Biden.
10/21/23 4:13 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
4Bauer: Maybe the Russians are one of the most flawed species that this orb’s evolution conjured.
10/21/23 7:35 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5JP,
Russkies are no different. They are human beans. Their history is the same story repeated around the world of flawed creatures bent on self-destruction, be it by vodka or assault weapons. A person is smart. The mob is stupid. Witness what is happening in Washington. How else to explain the Repug allegiance to the Don. Don’t expect a miraculous improvement in the intelligence of these flawed creatures. We are ruled by primitive brains not so different from our cavemen ancestors. And we likely will go extinct like the dinosaurs.
10/22/23 10:54 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6Speaking of primitive brains, Trump wont talk to anyone outside his cult. His cognitive decline can’t be denied. His neocortex left town long. His limbic brain is left straining to comprehend his lost legal position. Fight or flight. If you don’t think the lunatic won’t try to top January 6, think again.
10/23/23 11:26 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
7Trump deserves his legal travails but the suffering of the wives and children of the now disgraced Chesebro lackey types still bothers me. Not many women want to be married to a weak male no matter how successful he is. A scene in Michael Clayton comes to mind. A fellow has struck a jogger late at night without stopping and now expects a “fixer” from an investment firm to make his problem go away. The wife finally throws her drink down in disgust. She has been living a very posh life of course and should have known of her husband’s flawed character but maybe not.
10/24/23 9:40 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
8Trump’s brain, the Dead Zone
The Dead Zone was about a lunatic running for Presidense who wanted to destroy Russia. In Trump’s Dead Zone the orange lunatic gave Putin the handshake he could rape UKraine without consequence. Of course, the Trump story is everything he touches ends in the Dead Zone.
10/24/23 9:42 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9JP,
Michael Clayton car bomb was a turning point. Perhaps it will take somebody(Mikey Pence) threatened with death to turn on the Don. If Trump gets back in the White House, Pence is toast.
Interesting, the Trump Crime Family will not accept as a speaker anyone who voted to certify the 2020 results. Biden doesn’t need to talk to the American people about what’s going on in Ukraine. Biden needs to talk about the psychotic Republican Party.
10/24/23 5:02 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
10PVB- Joe Biden has nothing relevant nor pertinent about Ukraine nor Gaza to discuss. If he does manage to win the POTUS slot in 2024 he’ll most likely hand over the job to Harris. Since she is a fake and a flake we could be in for a new era of The Disunited States. The blowback could end the delusions of those who feel America is a beacon of reason and goodness in the world today.
10/25/23 4:03 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11JP,
“The blowback could end the delusions of those who feel America is a beacon of reason and goodness in the world today.”
Those people obviously have not read a history book about the United States. Since 1963, this country has been a beacon of dishonesty and corruption. It deserves a conman like Trump as Presidense so the world loses its delusions about Amerika. As my good friend Richie Scalia LOVES to quote George Carlin, “When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.” That CERTAINLY describes the MAGA REPUBLICAN PARTY.
10/25/23 10:06 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12And the FREAK SHOW is playing tonight in Maine. Over 30 dead in latest mass shooting. MAGA —-MAKE Amerika GRIEVE AGAIN.
10/25/23 10:11 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
13Talk to the WORLD about the sick United States, Joe
Officials said mass killer Card had mental health issues and recently said he was hearing voices. At one point, he allegedly threatened to shoot up the base where he was stationed.
Police said Card had spent two weeks at a mental health facility this summer and was subsequently released.
A guy spends two weeks for observation of mental issues and this idiot country allows him to have an AR15. So who is the mentally disturbed in this scenario?
10/26/23 11:48 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
14“America just can’t get enough of Endless War it seems.”
That is why we should make the AR15 our national symbol.
10/26/23 1:59 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15Maine does not require background checks on all gun sales and does not have “red flag” laws, also known as extreme risk laws, which allow a judge to temporarily remove a person’s access to guns if there’s evidence the individual poses a serious risk based on a family or law enforcement report.
The pain in Maine falls Mainly on the sane.
10/26/23 5:15 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16And to those assholes in Congress who think thoughts and prayers are the remedy for their assault weapon insanity, it will be just a matter of time they can use that line on their dead voters.
10/27/23 10:18 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
17While the Christian Nationalist Party has got Mikey Johnson as its Speaker(why are you Jews and Muslims still here?), let US not dismiss his brilliant take on the Maine mass shooter assault weapon- claiming cars kill people too. Yes, that is right. The number of deaths from cars is down by half in the past ten years due to reduced pollution. So let the gun nuts have their assault weapons and reduce the number of bullets they can fire, giving the victims time to run while the mass shooter has to reload.
10/27/23 11:20 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18Four of the eight men killed at a Lewiston bar and billiards hall were gunned down in what it appears to be the worst mass shooting of deaf people in U.S. history.
So the deaf were really killed because warnings about assault weapons in the hands of the mentally ill fell on deaf ears.
10/28/23 9:28 AM | Comment Link