To no sane person’s surprise, Democrats now hope to end support for Ukraine during the country’s intrepid fight against Vladimir Putin’s war of conquest.
Pramila Jayapal, chair of the far left “Congressional Progressive Caucus,” even drew heat from local liberal media and the online left this week for her duplicity. The Seattle-based zealot withdrew an egregious letter that 30 Members of her fringe caucus sent only 24 hours earlier to the White House.
The two-page document, signed by a cabal of military haters like Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and others, demanded President Joe Biden pursue “diplomacy” with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Jayapal and others claimed the letter was drafted several months ago and was released by staffers without vetting, but Politico reported Tuesday that Jayapal personally approved the letter’s release this week.
Confusion followed:
Not sure why it’s dated 10/24 as it was from July. Its intent is that we strive for a ceasefire, and leave the option of punishing Putin for the invasion. The reaction in some press is making it out different than an ask for more peaceful approaches in July. I don’t get timing…
— Mark Pocan (@MarkPocan) October 25, 2022
Sure. And I have a mountaintop home for sale in Florida.
The hard left is equally or more opposed to U.S. military involvement than the neo-isolationist right. Jayapal’s group only tacitly supported our allies because a Democrat currently occupies the Oval Office.
Some Democrats were rightly furious at this message of appeasement to Russian tyranny.
This letter is an olive branch to a war criminal who’s losing his war.
Ukraine is on the march. Congress should be standing firmly behind @JoeBidens effective strategy, including tighter – not weaker! – sanctions. https://t.co/3ymk7gwGM5
— Jake Auchincloss (@JakeAuch) October 25, 2022
Leadership also probably didn’t like the timing of a letter that divides Democrats just a fortnight before they’re set to lose their small House majority.
At least Rep. Ro Khanna, who signed the missive, boldly told CNN he did not support the decision to rescind it.
“I think the letter was common sense,” the Californian said Tuesday.
Any negotiating with Russia over the heads of Ukraine is immoral. Period. No useful diplomacy should occur so long as Ukrainians are willing to fight for their homeland and Putin refuses to cede territory. The best way to counter Putin is to continue supporting Ukraine’s heroic struggle against rogue Russian forces.
As for Republicans, I was quite clear late last week that Kevin McCarthy’s recent “no blank check” remark was embarrassing and distressing; however, other than appeasing Tucker Carlson and some nationalists, it didn’t commit the House leader to anything. Thankfully, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell responded adequately by saying Republicans in the upper chamber want aid to Ukraine to be expedited.
Isolationism — led by ignorant adherents on both fringes — is naïve, not in our best interests, and anathema to history.
“The reason this is not the time for some chimerical “negotiated settlement and ceasefire” has nothing to do with anyone’s lack of effort but rather with the fact that the existing differences of opinion between Russia and Ukraine cannot be resolved at the negotiating table but only on the battlefield,” the senior AEI fellow opined.
As for any negotiation, I’d keep it simple: return all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea; pay all reconstruction costs; return all Ukrainian citizens; turn over Russian military personnel and political leaders, including Putin, for war crimes trials at The Hague; remove Russia from the UN Security Council.
Isn’t being harsh better than being a useful idiot?f
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Ari Kaufman is a veteran journalist who currently writes for a half-dozen newspapers, magazines, and websites, including here at The Lid.
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