It is a disgrace that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has had to come to Washington today, for the second time, to beg for aid for his embattled country.
Some issues are complicated. Some are simple. This one’s a no-brainer. What’s the connection between immigration on America’s southern border and the war in Ukraine?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. Except that a handful of Senate Republicans would rather play politics at home than uphold America’s historic role as the world’s chief defender of democracy.
This one’s personal for me. In 1988, toward the end of the Soviet Union, my wife and I and our two sons joined a month-long Peace Walk of 200 Americans and 200 residents of the Soviet republics, walking across Ukraine from Odessa to Kiev. For us Americans, especially, it was a heady experience. To our surprise, as we walked through remote villages of the Ukrainian countryside, the entire population would turn out to greet us like rock stars.
We soon found out why: We were the first Americans they’d seen in almost half a century, ever since American troops liberated them from the Nazis. Learning Americans were in the area, they poured out to cheer us, thank us and shower us with gifts.
No doubt that reception would be different today. Instead of Ukrainians telling Americans how much they valued being liberated by them, they’d be expressing their disbelief and disappointed in how we’ve abandoned them at the hour of their greatest need. Or, at least, appear ready to.
If we believe in freedom, if we believe in international law, if we believe in human dignity, there is simply no excuse — none! — for failing to support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia’s murderous invasion — and to provide that funding fully, enthusiastically and independently, not tied to anything else.
Granted, there are problems at our southern border. There have been for every president since Andrew Jackson. And Republicans are correct in saying those problems must be addressed. They can be and should be, in a bipartisan manner. But to link the two issues by refusing additional aid to Ukraine and Israel until Republicans get everything they want on the southern border is nothing but a cheap political game.
Senate Republicans, in effect, are holding desperately-needed help for Ukraine hostage. And let’s be clear why they’re doing it. Not because they want border security to succeed. But because they want Ukraine to fail.
Yes, it’s time to tell the truth about the Senate impasse over Ukraine funding. It’s not about policy, it’s about politics. Republicans want Ukraine to fail because a failure for Ukraine would be a failure for Joe Biden and a win for Donald Trump.
Of course, it would also be a huge win for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Letting Putin get away with his invasion of Ukraine would indeed, as President Biden said last week, give him “the greatest gift he could ask for.” It would also give him a green light to continue gobbling up more territory. He felt free to invade Ukraine in February 2022 because the United States stood by and did nothing when he invaded and seized Crimea in February 2014. If allowed to annex Ukraine, or even any part of the country, who knows what neighboring country is next on his wish list?
Ronald Reagan must be rolling in his grave. The mainstream Republican Party he loved and led has not only become the party of Donald Trump. It’s now the party of Vladimir Putin.
Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”