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Tales from the Mark Side: When did Democrats get more hawkish than Republicans?

mark.young@manateeherald.com

It happens once in a while. Like the broken clock that shows the right time of day twice a day, there is the occasional moment where I can get behind Joe Biden.

Also like the broken clock, it’s wrong 99 percent of the time, and so is Joe even though I agree that we need to stand strong with Ukraine.

I’ve made this argument before and I don’t want to get back into the geopolitical nightmare a Russian victory will create.

Now, for a full clarification of me siding with Mr. Biden, the man has mucked this up from the start, as we all know and his piecemeal approach to arming the Ukranians is weak and lame.

WIth our full support, the Ukranians could end this war and any debate about how much more this is going to cost the American taxpayer would not even be an issue.

I am somewhat shocked to see democrats getting more hawkish than Republicans on this issue. Unfortunately, democrats are never up to the task when it comes to dealing with hostile nations.

Proof is in the current pudding with Biden’s failure after failure in getting this situation under control, not to mention Afghanistan and emboldening North Korea and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as having to now deal with China’s intervention.

It’s a mess and that’s all on Joe Biden.

Republicans should never, and I do mean never, allow democrats to take the lead on foreign policy. It only ends in disaster.

The biggest arguments I’m hearing from Republicans who are now questioning our commitment to Ukraine is the concern over the cost and questions about whether Ukraine can be a trusted democratic ally in the future.

Let me address the cost first because the argument is invalid when it comes to government spending. We report time and again the massive amounts of money that is spent on foolish endeavors.

Trillions of dollars when broken down we learn about our tax dollars paying for such things like studying shrimp on treadmills.

What’s been spent in Ukraine is a drop in the bucket in comparison to how wasteful our government spends.

Hell, we just spent $400,000 to shoot down a spy balloon and $800,000 shooting down a private experimental balloon because we missed the first time.

We supposedly shot down a few other unidentified “objects,” so we probably spent upwards of $3 million doing that.

That’s the same amount of money being spent on a Michelle Obama nature trail. And we want to call killing Russians a waste of money?

And that’s just in missiles. It doesn’t take into account flight time and fuel, not to mention what was spent in unsuccessful efforts to recover the unidentified “objects.”

How does the United States of America shoot something down and then can’t find it in today’s age? That’s scary sad and a complete embarrassment.

In reality, it wouldn’t surprise me if the final bill to the taxpayer was in the tens of millions.

I, for one, have no problem with my tax dollars going toward killing Russians.

I do, however, agree with Republicans that what we spend needs more accountability and transparency. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making that demand and quite frankly, it’s a demand we should be making when it comes to this administration.

Now, as far as whether Ukraine will be a trusted ally going forward, I’ll just say two things.

One: I think Ukraine will be forever grateful for what the U.S. is doing. And let’s not leave out an important fact because there are probably hundreds of American veterans voluntarily fighting side by side with Ukrainian forces.

These guys understand the potential domino effect that would occur with a Russian victory and when those dominoes start falling, it represents a much more dangerous future for the planet than Putin’s current nuclear threats.

I don’t believe Ukraine will ever forget the American lives being lost on their soil or the fact that America stood by their side through dark times.

The second thing I’ll say about whether Ukraine can be trusted is: Who cares?

Again, all we should care about is doing whatever is necessary to kill Russians while we have the chance to do it without risking American lives.

We haven’t had that chance since Afghanistan in the 80s.

And the combination of our weapons and tough-as-nails Ukrainian troops has been effective. Russian troops are being slaughtered on the battlefield.

Am I the only one celebrating this fact? Am I the only one who wants the Ukrainians to have more weapons which equates to more dead Russians?

I find that hard to believe.

Maybe I’m biased because I’m a Cold War veteran. Virtually all of our training was in preparation to kill Russians, and occasionally their puppet regimes. 

I even took part in a Congressional exercise to decide whether the Army should shift fully to mechanized infantry. As a ground pounder, we took on tanks using Russian tactics and we picked them apart using TOW missiles with hit-and-run tactics.

The political assumption that infected the ranks within military command at the time was that Russian tanks would roll over U.S. forces in Germany and Europe in a matter of days before we could respond to stop them. We knew better because we knew we were better.

And so are the Ukranians. Like most military forces under a dictatorship, Russian troops rely heavily on their command structure to be something resembling an effective fighting force.

Whereas American troops can function in small groups or even as individuals. It’s how we are trained. If something happens to a commanding officer, the responsibility shifts downward in rank without losing our ability to bring our enemies to the gates of hell.

The last argument I hear is the worst and irks me to no end. I just cringe when I hear people say what’s happening in Ukraine is none of our business and we, “shouldn’t be the world’s police force.”

Besides the common sense and factual geopolitical consequences that have been laid out time and again, I strongly disagree with that notion.

No, America can’t solve every single problem. But you don’t have to be a cop to do the right thing when you see it happening.

I always make this simple argument: If you were walking down the street and saw some young lady being pulled into an alley to be raped, would you keep walking? Or would you do something?

Russian soldiers are committing atrocities and war crimes. This is something that simply cannot stand. We cannot continue to make the same mistakes we have made throughout our history.

We don’t have to solve the world’s problems. But we can, and should always do the right thing when we have an opportunity to do so.

Spending a couple of billion dollars without risking American lives to kill Russians and limit their ability to commit these atrocities is money well spent.

Every time an American bullet enters the head of a Russian rapist, well, I’m good with that. For crying out loud, the Russians are kidnapping Ukrainian children and adopting them out to Russian families.

If that’s OK with you, we are not the same.

So if you are someone who would silently walk away from that young lady being raped in the alley because it’s not your problem or are afraid to be hurt yourself, then look at it a different way.

If you saw the same thing happening and then saw a police officer driving up the road, you would – I hope – at least flag the officer down? Or hell, even if you saw some big, bruising guy walking by, wouldn’t you at least tell him what was happening to that young lady in hopes he would do something about it?

Look at our tax dollars as that police officer or that big bruiser of a man. Those dollars are doing what you don’t want to do, or can’t do. Be happy either way because you are doing your part to save that young lady from being violated.

Republicans need to come back from this delusional trip they are taking when it comes to Ukraine. People arguing about ending financial support of Ukraine because, “America has its own problems,” is ridiculous.

What’s happening in Ukraine is our problem, especially if Russia wins. For those saying that money can be better spent here, how about focusing more on ending the funding for shrimp on treadmills.

A few billion dollars to kill Russians and put a tyrant in his place is worth every cent.

If some Republicans don’t understand this simple truth, then more than ever my fellow Patriots, stay vigilant and keep informed because we are on a dangerous path to losing our identity.

And if we lose our identity, we will end up losing much more than these shortsighted Republicans understand.

Saying forget Ukraine because we are America First is a false statement. Killing Russians is America First. And when it comes time, killing Chinese troops will be America First.

It is the ultimate America First to want your enemy rotting on the battlefield. I can’t say it any more plainly than that. Supporting Ukraine is supporting America’s interests.

We just need a real leader in the White House to get it done.

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