Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is on board with one Biden initiative: funding the administration’s war packages to Ukraine. The Kentucky Republican claims this is a top priority among Republicans. Polling suggests otherwise, and it’s not just members of the GOP—the nation at large is starting to get tired of the Ukraine excursion that’s rapidly becoming yet another endless war for the United States, albeit by proxy. The situation on the ground there is stalemated because Russia’s military is racked by incompetence, coupled with shoddy weapons and tactics, while the Ukrainians have some of the best weapons but lack the manpower to rout Russian forces entirely.
That’s the 30,000-foot overview, but if this conflict requires NATO troops, specifically our forces, to move the needle, and there have been insinuations to that effect, then this whole affair could take an ugly turn. Biden is a disaster abroad, but let’s hope what little brain activity he has left knows the danger that could come from American troops being deployed. At any rate, support for the war and the confidence that Biden can handle it is decreasing (via Associated Press):
Support among the American public for providing Ukraine weaponry and direct economic assistance has softened as the Russian invasion nears a grim one-year milestone, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Forty-eight percent say they favor the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29% opposed and 22% saying they’re neither in favor nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60% of U.S. adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons.
Americans are about evenly divided on sending government funds directly to Ukraine, with 37% in favor and 38% opposed, with 23% saying neither.
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The poll shows 19% of Americans have a great deal of confidence in Biden’s ability to handle the situation in Ukraine, while 37% say they have only some confidence and 43% have hardly any.
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Overall, the poll shows that about a quarter of Americans, 26%, now say the U.S. should have a major role in the situation, down from as high as 40% in March 2022. Still, 49% say the U.S. should have a minor role, and just 24% say it should have no role.
Since last March, the percentage of Democrats saying the U.S. should have a major role has dipped slightly from 48% to 40%, while among Republicans it has dropped from 35% to 17%.
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I supported the first few packages since we cannot allow Putin to get away with land grabs. Now, it should be Europe’s turn to foot the bill. It also should be noted that Putin had executed land grabs before, got away with it, and it wasn’t massively disruptive to the world order; Obama allowed him to annex Crimea in 2014. Biden’s weakness and predictability gave Moscow the confidence to invade, which is no shock given that the Obama-Biden foreign policy playbook is laughably unsurprising. It’s also why Assad gassed his own people in Syria; he knew Obama would do nothing. What’s kept Putin from his anticipated blitzkrieg-like victory is his third-rate military. In some weird way, you cannot help but think that the only reason Biden is waging this war is that a significant portion of the Democratic base hates Russia over the conspiracy theory that they tilted the 2016 election, which is a bad way to conduct foreign policy. Also, Mitch, this isn't a top priority for the GOP, and even Democrats' support is waning.
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