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| Blumenthal |
There is little doubt that Connecticut U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal has been emotionally affected by his recent visit to Poland, where he saw writ large at first hand the ravages of Russian imperialist Vladimir Putin’s policy towards Ukraine, NATO, the United States and democracy. About a third of Ukrainians have fled Putin’s assaults on major Ukrainian cities, many of them ending up in Poland.
Blumenthal well understands Putin’s unjustifiable attacks on
a sovereign country that has served since the Soviet Union recession as a
buffer between Russia and Eastern Europe.
Strategically, Putin wants to crush Ukrainian independence,
move Russia’s border westward, so that it is contiguous with the borders of
NATO states, put Ukraine permanently at the mercy of Russia by annexing the
Donbas region, as Russia had earlier annexed Crimea, providing a land bridge
from Russia to Crimea. Both Blumenthal and Biden are familiar with Putin’s
strategic war aims. So are nearly all Democrats and Republicans, as well as
Pentagon chieftains.
Early in April, the Senate Armed Services Committee grilled
both Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman
Gen. Mark Milley.
“Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the Hill reported, “was the most
vocal of several Democrats on the panel urging the Pentagon to step up
its support for Ukraine’s war effort.
“It seems to me that often our strategy seems somewhat
schizophrenic," Blumenthal said. "We want the Ukrainians to defeat the
Russians, but we're afraid that pushing Putin into defeat may provoke
escalation. It seems to me that we need to address those fears and
realistically provide the Ukrainians what they need to win."
Blumenthal earlier had said that the United States should be supplying adequate weapons to Ukraine – including forbidden planes that would allow Ukraine to regain control of its skies which, everyone in the military knows, is necessary if the friends of the United States and NATO were to win a ground war. Blumenthal is a Marine.
Republican U. S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Hill reported, “elicited from Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III the admission that, up until now, the Pentagon has not clearly stated that the U.S. military could provide battlefield information to Ukraine’s forces that could help them fight Russian proxies in the separatist-controlled eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.”
Why couldn’t the Pentagon provide Ukraine with naval assets,
Blumenthal asked, “or send American A-10 attack planes that the Pentagon is in
the process of retiring. He also wondered aloud whether America cannot train
Ukrainian troops so they can operate more U.S.-made equipment. He wondered why
the administration has not invoked Defense Production Act authorities to accelerate
weapons procurements.”
It was Blumenthal’s finest hour… well, perhaps his finest 15 minutes of fame, and U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, who serves with Blumenthal on the Senate Armed Services Committee, justly complimented Blumenthal.
But Blumenthal’s pointed question – is the State Department
and the Pentagon interested in WINNING a military contest against Putin? –
might easily be asked of President Joe Biden, the nominal head of the national
Democrat Party. Does Biden want to WIN the war in Ukraine?
Praise of Ukrainian courage has become a form of cheap grace
among administration and Defense Department officials. Training Ukrainians in the use of new weaponry, Austin said, “would take
Ukrainian fighters out of the ‘knife fight’ they are in. And he expressed doubt
that A-10s Blumenthal mentioned “could survive attacks in Ukraine. He
reiterated, too, that the administration is pushing U.S. defense contractors as
hard as possible to turn out more weapons for Ukraine and to backfill U.S.
stocks that the Pentagon has drawn down to support the war.”
Owing to an abundance of caution on the part of the Biden administration and its Pentagon advisors, Ukraine has been in a “knife fight” with an acquisitive enemy that has had complete control of the skies over Ukraine from the very first Russian aggression. That IS the problem. The U.S. and its allies are asking Ukrainians to continue a “knife fight” with Putin, who has brought a gun to the fight and has reduced to dust numerous Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol, the gateway to the Donbas region Putin hopes to add to Russian acquisitions.
Over the weekend, Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
paid a visit to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The meeting on Sunday,
according to an Associated
Press report, “took place as Ukrainians and Russians observed orthodox Easter, when the faithful celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Speaking from
Kyiv’s ancient St. Sophia Cathedral, Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, highlighted its
significance to a nation wracked by war.
“The great holiday today gives us great hope and unwavering faith
that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome
death, and therefor Ukraine will surely win.”
Milley is not hopeful. Ukrainians, he said, have “managed to
defeat the Russian onslaught onto Kyiv. But there is a significant battle yet
ahead down in the southeast, down around the Donbas region, where the
Russians intend to mass forces and continue their assault. So I think it's an
open question right now how this ends.”
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