Public Comment

Congress has been frantically trying to negotiate a border deal. Without a border deal, Republicans will not approve further Ukraine and Israel funding.  

The Senate may ultimately agree on a border deal. However former president Donald Trump doesn’t want a border deal as it would it would give President Joe Biden a “win” while Trump — the likely Republican nominee— would lose an issue to run on in the presidential race. In other words, Trump would rather have a campaign issue than a border deal. It appears that in order to placate Trump, enough House Republicans may not vote for any border deal. Meanwhile Ukraine fighting for its very survival will be left high and dry. 

Ukraine desperately needs the $61.4 billion for weapons, equipment, support for U.S. troops in Europe and economic support for Ukraine's government.  

It should be noted that on December 9, 2023, the Biden Administration bypassed Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million. Later, for the second time the Biden administration again bypassed Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel of $147.5 million sale for equipment, including fuses, charges and primers, that is needed to make the 155 mm shells that Israel has already purchased function. 

"Given the urgency of Israel's defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer," the State Department said. "The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces," it said. 

Why then isn’t the Biden Administration committed to the security of Ukraine necessitating emergency support? It would seem to me that Ukraine’s situation is much more dire than Israel’s. 

Why should Americans care about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine anyway as the war is so far away and is not a threat to our national security or to Western Europe? This view seems strange as the GOP is traditionally a hawkish foreign policy party. In fact, at the beginning of the invasion, a handful of Republicans criticized the Biden White House for not doing more to help Ukraine defend itself. 

Remember, Ukraine shares a border with Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, all NATO members. If Russia prevails in Ukraine, then it becomes a greater threat to these neighboring NATO countries. If all NATO countries do not continue their support then what’s the purpose of NATO in the first place? If Putin is allowed to invade a sovereign country in violation of international law and threatens its sovereignty, it would signal to others to do the same, which in turn, will affect us. 

The U.S. is part of a global world interdependent economically, socially, and politically. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he won’t stop there. He didn’t stop after seizing Crimea in 2014. President Biden has made it clear that helping Ukraine will not include boots on the ground. The U.S., Canada, the EU, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the UK have already imposed severe hsanctions against Russia and the U.S. has deployed or repositioned U.S. forces to Germany, Poland, Moldova and Romania near those countries’ with borders with Ukraine for defensive purposes only.  

President Biden should be commended for rallying the NATO’s members in support of Ukraine in defense of democracy. Ukraine is fighting for its very survival and to leave them to inevitable defeat would be irresponsible?