By a Thread

CNN

Since October 2023, the beginning of the fiscal year, the Army has spent over $430 million on various operations, including training Ukrainian troops, transporting equipment, and US troop deployments to Europe. “We’re basically taking it out of hide in the Army,” a senior Army official told CNN.

So far, that bill has been paid from the Army’s Europe and Africa Command. Without a 2024 budget approved by Congress, and without additional funding specifically for Ukraine, the command has roughly $3 billion to pay for $5 billion of operations costs, a second senior Army official explained. That includes not only the operations related to Ukraine support — training and ferrying weapons and equipment to Poland and Ukraine — but other operations for the US command throughout Europe and Africa. (CNN).

Burning

There’s an apocryphal tale about Roman Emperor Nero – that as the city of Rome caught fire, he played a violin.  Thus was created the phrase, “He fiddled while Rome burned”.  Whether Nero did that or not, the saying has come to describe anyone or group that allows a crisis to go by without trying find a solution, usually to a “bad end”. 

Here in the United States, we are fiddling away.  Well, maybe not all of us, in fact, not even the majority of us.  Most of the  US government, the Congress and even the House of Representatives would prefer action to “fiddling”.  But those that have the power to set the agenda for the House, the Speaker and his leadership team, seemed determine to allow Ukraine to “burn”, to fall to the Russian invaders, rather than step in and support their just battle.

No Man’s Land

Ukraine isn’t asking for direct military intervention.  They actually have the strategic situation well in-hand.  They’ve held off the Russian invaders for two full years, driving back into the territories Russia “annexed” nine years ago.  In fact, Ukraine was poised to drive Russia out of all occupied territories.  But the Ukrainian offensive stalled, stopped by the greatest concentration of land mines the world has ever seen.  And so, instead of a World War II battle of movement and strategy, this struggle has become a World War I battle of attrition and stalemate.

In World War I, the battle over “No Man’s Land” lasted for almost four years.  Both sides poured massive amounts of blood and treasure into maintaining that stalemate.  It nearly bankrupted Germany; France and Great Britain weren’t very far behind.  And an entire generation of leaders was left mangled in the mud-filled craters of France.

Ukraine and Russia are in a similar situation.  Russia, in spite of its relatively weak economic standing in the world, has resources to overwhelm Ukraine,  given time.  Ukraine, on the other hand, has the determination to drive Russia from much of their national soil, as long as they have the weaponry and supplies.

No Brainer

And that’s where the United States comes in.  Sure, part of it is the moral obligation of the world’s most visible democracy helping defend against an autocratic invader.  But there is a much more self-serving goal for Americans.  Russia represents one of the two preeminent threats to democracy and world stability.  The Russian military can be worn down: leaders, supplies, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers lost on the open plains of Ukraine.  The US can weaken a major world opponent.  And it doesn’t cost American lives.

It does require American treasure.  Just as Ronald Reagan doubled the US Government deficit to drive the Soviet Union into bankruptcy; the United States, for a much smaller cost, can dissipate Russian wealth and might.  

To what end?  Putin has made it clear that his goal is to rebuild the Soviet Empire.  It’s likely a “binary choice”:  support Ukraine now, or fight, with real American troops, in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland later.   It’s a “no brainer”, a decision that takes little intellect or nuanced understanding to make.  

But here we are, fiddling away. 

Northern Christian White Alliance 

What’s even scarier; it’s not just about keeping Biden from getting a “win”; or the 2024 Presidential election, or satisfying the ravenous political appetite of Donald Trump.  Underneath the raw politics is an ideology, expressed most clearly by former Trump advisor (and future Federal inmate?) Steve Bannon.   He believes in a world of the “great Northern, Christian, White Alliance”; a confederation of two autocratic nations, the United States and Russia; against the great “brown masses” of the rest of the world; and of course, China.  Bannon wants an alliance with Russia, and allies let other allies do whatever the hell they want.  If Putin wants Eastern Europe, so be it, and NATO obligations be damned.

Political Courage

We are fiddling away, but we are, willfully, allowing an extreme ideology take hold.  Put it to a vote, and a bipartisan majority of the House would join the Senate and supporting Ukraine (and Israel, and Taiwan, and even make changes at the Southern Border),  But the incredibly narrow majority of Speaker Mike Johnson, and his absolute desire to keep his job, is preventing our government from acting.  

It’s not just about the Ukrainian dead.  And it’s not just about 2024.  It’s about the future world “order”.  

There’s a way to stop the fiddling.  An arcane parliamentary maneuver, a “discharge petition”, will get the job done.  But it will take something in short supply in 2024 America, a few Republican Congressmen with courage to stand up to the MAGA majority. 

The fate of our future world is hanging by a thread.  Some three Republican Congressmen will decide what happens next. 

Ukraine Crisis

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.