Ukraine president delivers upbeat message on war progress during second White House visit since Russian invasion
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy worked to shore up US support for Ukraine on a whirlwind visit to Washington on Thursday, delivering an upbeat message on the war’s progress while facing new questions about the flow of US dollars that for 19 months have helped keep his troops in the fight against Russian forces.
The Ukrainian leader received a far quieter reception than the hero’s welcome he was given last year from Congress, but also won generally favorable comments on the next round of US aid he says he needs to stave off defeat.
From a strategic standpoint, we are fighting a proxy war with one of the world “superpowers” without putting a single American soldier at risk. We are straining the resources of said “superpower”, exposing their military weaknesses, and thus indirectly strengthening our position of military power on the world stage.
From an economic standpoint, the war being in Ukraine is fantastic for the US military industrial complex. This is a rare case of public support of increased arms production. It’s an opportunity to offload old weapon inventory, and gives manufactures the luxury of honing logistics of new weapon production without the threat of conflict to the United States. Weapon manufacturers currently have live-fire test zone in conflict with a superpower to test old and new weapon systems.
It’s all red-state, support our troops, big-business war profiteering touted by conservatives for the last two decades safely bottled up on the other side of the world. Why would conservative-minded politicians not support the war?
Every headline of “We gave $X of new aid to Ukraine” is windfall subsidy for one of the strongest sectors of the US economy - weapons manufacturing.
As a liberal, I find myself conflicted and weirdly supportive of it too, after having been against American military crusades for a good long while, this seems like an actual justified use of American military power. Which, to me, says that conservatives not in support of it are either just being contrarian because it’s something that liberals are mostly for and they’re willing to cut their nose off to spite their face, OR their leadership has been compromised by Russia and are doing its bidding. This was the party that for decades was frothing at the mouth ready to go to nuclear war against Russia and wants to use the American military for everything from stopping illegal immigration to dealing with diplomatic disputes to freeing American tourists, yet suddenly they’ve found Jesus and think we shouldn’t be helping a country resist being invaded?
That’s practically their name brand.
U.S. conservative politicians serve Putin. Whether by kompromat or by bribery, conservatives serve Putin and not U.S. citizens.
Isn’t the more likely explanation that they have more to gain from a second Trump term, lowering corporate taxes?
The more they undermine Biden and Ukraine, the likelier it is in their view that Trump makes a comeback.
Well said!