"Blank Check" Nonsense
"Blank Check" Nonsense
The problem with the Biden admin's approach to Ukraine is it's trickling support of their effort, not some "blank check" written to Zelensky.
It's highly frustrating that some Republicans want to keep up this "blank check to Ukraine" nonsense when the real issue is that President Biden has slow-rolled our support to Ukraine to the point of damaging the effectiveness of their counter-offensives.
The most appropriate course of action to end the war is to ensure Ukraine's ability to win the war. If we want to check Russia's destabilizing effect in the region, and avoid a broader war, we need to help Ukraine effectively and expeditiously repulse Putin's plans for conquest and regional hegemony.
If we want to check the budding Sino-Russian alliance, then we should aid Ukraine in embarrassing Russia, forcing China to distance itself from Putin's regime and forcing them to reckon with the consequences of their own ambitions for conquest. The immediate answer at hand to address aggression from authoritarian regimes like China and Iran and to safeguard the principles of sovereignty in the international order is to ensure that designs for conquest utterly and completely fail.
The problem with Biden's "for as long as it takes" stance isn't that it's a "blank check" but that it's often a too little, too late policy that responds to Russian aggression in a manner just enough to keep Ukraine in the field but not enough for them to seize decisive victory and end the war now rather than later.
-Justin
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