Washington, D.C., chooses its wars. And, right now, leaders in Washington have decided that the United States has a vested interest in the war in Ukraine.
After several months of confusion, lawmakers finally approved $62 billion ukraine will fight russia In recent weeks, most Democrats have been supporting US aid.
But Congress withdrew the money only after prolonged pressure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. President Biden, McConnell and others ultimately appealed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Pressed to support the aid, even though most House Republicans opposed it. The Senate approved a combination foreign aid package a few days later, 79–18. Only 31 of the 49 GOP members of the Senate voted yes.
Hidden in that package was money for Israel, another conflict in which the US has involved itself, thanks to votes from bipartisan lawmakers.
The House is practically functioning as a parliament, with the ‘Prime Minister’ being Mike Johnson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the U.S. Congress while Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hold a Ukrainian national flag that Zelensky gave them on December 21, 2022 in Washington, DC Gave in the US Capitol. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s a very subtle reminder of how Washington immerses itself in foreign conflict Alfonso arrived the day after Chardi’s death. Chardy was a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Miami Herald and helped solve and expose the Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s. This was a decision by the Reagan administration to engage in proxy wars in Central America under the guise of fighting the spread of communism during the Cold War. There was concern about growing Soviet influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Leftist Sandinistas gained power in Nicaragua in the late 1970s. Congress sent money to support the Contra rebels in the civil war. But lawmakers began restricting funding to the Contras in the early 1980s before eliminating all funding.
Reagan administration officials found a creative – albeit illegal – way to do this. go around congress,
The US will secretly sell arms to Iran in an effort to curry favor with Tehran for releasing Western hostages held in the Middle East. The proceeds from those arms sales benefited the Contras in their fight against the Sandinistas.
Congress may have decided not to get involved in Nicaragua. But Washington chose that particular fight overall, ensuring that the US was fighting through a proxy in Central America.
President Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Ivan Vucci)
Fast forward several decades, when the US decided to go to war in Iraq in 2003. Congress voted in late 2002 to approve the operation, but today few lawmakers defend that entire conflict.
This was the thesis of a floor speech by Senator J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who was perhaps the most ardent opponent in Congress against sending aid to Ukraine.
“In 2003, I was a high school senior and I had a political position,” Vance declared, speaking about the time he completed high school in Middletown, Ohio, and enlisted in the Marine Corps. “At the time, I believed the George W. Bush administration’s propaganda that we needed to invade Iraq.”
Vance later said about the argument help ukraine “Familiar.”
“The same thing is happening 20 years later under different names,” Vance said. “When I went to Iraq I saw that I had been lied to. The promises to establish the foreign policy of this country were a complete joke.”
Vance called the push for war in Iraq “probably the most shameful period in the history of the Republican Party over the last 40 years.”
Senator J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, has long been a critic of U.S. aid provided to Ukraine. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Vance said that his “excuse” for supporting the war in Iraq is that I was a high school senior. What is the excuse for the many people who were in this chamber at the time or in the House of Representatives and are now singing the same song when it comes to Ukraine?”
The answer is that US leaders are committed to helping Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
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History will tell who is right or wrong on this front. Just as history has judged America’s involvement by calling for war against Soviet influence in Central America or in Iraq. Remember that foreign aid packages also include money for Israel. Congressional Republicans were more comfortable aiding Israel than some liberals.
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was one of the most vocal opponents of sending US dollars to israel,
“Simply put, we are deeply involved in what is happening. This is not an Israeli war. This is an Israeli-American war. Most of the bombs and most of the military equipment being used by the Israeli government comes from the United States. are provided by America and subsidized by American taxpayers,” Sanders said. “We are aiding and abetting the destruction of the Palestinian people.”
Rep. Cori Bush, D-MO, also opposed the legislation in the House.
Bush said, “This bill passed today is a death warrant. A death warrant for the Palestinians.” “Apparently, it means that Palestinians are not valued as much. That their lives are not as valuable as Israeli lives. And I have to say, people who feel that way should be ashamed.”
In Ukraine, it was clear that McConnell had won. This is perhaps one of his last major policy achievements as Republican leader. McConnell did not call Vance by name. But it was clear who he was targeting in his impassioned speech.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have both supported funding for Ukraine and Israel. (Getty Images)
“So much of the hesitation and shortsightedness that has delayed this moment is based on mere imagination,” McConnell said. “I take no pleasure in refuting misguided fictions. I sincerely wish that recognizing the responsible views of American leadership be the price of admission to a serious conversation about the future of our national security.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. also reiterated his counterpart’s point.
“Getting it done was one of the Senate’s greatest accomplishments in years, maybe decades,” Schumer said. “Many people in and out of Congress wanted this package to fail.”
“I think we’ve moved away from the separatist movement,” McConnell said. “You could argue that this is a more challenging time right now than World War II. I don’t want something like the Pearl Harbor attack to draw our attention.”
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As Adolf Hitler swept through Europe in the 1930s and early 1940s, America sat on the sidelines. The US became involved only after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made an appeal to the US during a joint session of Congress just after Christmas in 1941.
America chooses its wars; America has chosen Ukraine and Israel for its war.
History will judge whether they were the right decisions or not.
