“Ukraine Fatigue Resolution”
Another bill doomed to die.
Speaking of Alabama Representative Barry Moore (R-AL02), here’s another story that caught my eye from AL.com: Alabama congressman signs on to ‘Ukraine Fatigue Resolution’ to end military, financial aid to country.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Wiregrass, is among 11 House members that signed on to the “Ukraine Fatigue Resolution,” which calls on America to stop military and financial aid to Ukraine nearly a year since Russia’s invasion and “urges all combatants to reach a peace agreement.”
Look, I would love there to be peace, but it is also true that at the moment any peace would almost certainly reward Russia for its cynical, unprovoked, and unjust invasion of its neighbor.
Moreover, this sounds like a teenager who is getting bored with a job. It would be wholly irresponsible to pull the plug on Ukraine at this time, especially given the clear encouragement that the US and NATO has provided to date. This all feels like crude isolationism and/or people listening too much to Russian propaganda.
Of course, like the DOE closure bill, this one is going nowhere. From today’s Face the Nation:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I let you go, I want to ask you, you voted in the last Congress to provide a lot of assistance to Ukraine, but this past week, at least 10 of your members Republican members introduced a bill called the Ukraine Fatigue Resolution to try to cut off aid. How hard is it going to be to have a Republican-led house continue to help Ukraine?
REP. MCCAUL: I still believe Margaret, there are many on both sides of the aisle, a majority of the majorities, in support of this. We have- we have factions on the left and right, that do not support Ukraine–
MARGARET BRENNAN: This is a Republican bill.
REP. MCCAUL: –and that will probably continue. Right, and I do think, for me, particularly, it’s- we have to educate, where has the money gone. You know, the audits that are in place right now, there are four of them on Ukraine funding. And we have to explain why is Ukraine so important. You know, what happens in Ukraine impacts Taiwan and Chairman Xi, that China’s aligned with Russia, Iran and North Korea, against freedom, democracy in the West. And, you know, I think that’s a debate we’ll have, but I still feel very confident that we will give them the assistance they need. I’d like to see it faster, so they can win this faster.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you- you think Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, others who signed this, need to be educated?
REP. MCCAUL: You know, look, we took Marjorie Taylor Greene into a briefing. She was satisfied, I thought, with what- the controls that have been put in place on the spending, but I don’t think that they will be- ever be persuaded that this cause is something that they would support. I think they have this false dichotomy that somehow we can’t help Ukraine, you know, beat back the Russians who invaded their country, and- and secure the border. We can do both. We’re a great nation. And the fact of the matter is, unfortunately, this administration has chosen not to secure the border. He can’t even control and secure our airspace now, it looks like.
At bottom, we are supporting Ukraine to say it’s the 21st century, we don’t do wars of conquest anymore and to defend liberal democracy. Many Republicans see no value in the latter.
McCaul closes with a whataboutist shot at Biden over failure to secure the border. IIRC in a hearing yesterday the Ds asked the Border Patrol or Homeland Security guys what changed when Biden took over. They replied nothing. As with the culture war, Ds need to not argue about immigration but point out that GOPs are delusional.
We need to remember and point out when there is a question about US support for Ukraine, that if we withdrew our support today and the Russians took Ukraine tomorrow, these same R’s will blame Biden for losing Ukraine.
It’s performative.
Why are so many Republicans in a hurry to sellout the Ukraine and appease Russia?
I guess it’s not too early to nominate Barry Moore for a Neville Chamberlain Award.
@al Ameda:
Possibly because Putin is a Christian–ha!–strongman who hates gay people. Plus, Donald Trump reveres Putin and kowtows to him.
What’s not to like?
Barry Moore has a long history of supporting the Russian government internationally and advocating the overthrow of the US government at home, so I’d suggest his issue is not fatigue, but rather that he’s actively on the other side of the Russia-Ukraine War.
Apologists for Russia. Nothing more, nothing less.
@Sleeping Dog:
For many, but not all. There is a hard core that just really really like and support Putin/Russia and all they stand for: the aggressive Russian Orthodox Christian expansionism, the various bigotries they share like LGBTQ+ bashing, etc. Lots of similarities to our own Christian Nationalists.
The Republicans need to be reminded that this is not the time, as Margaret Thatcher said, to go “all wobbly” on Ukraine. These borscht slurping surrender monkeys need to be slapped down and be told to take their America hating authoritarianism back to the 30s.
@al Ameda:
Because John McCain and Jack Kemp have left the building, and we’re left with a bunch of proto-fascist traitors.
@charon:
So fake Christians using religion as a front for white supremacy?
There’s an interesting substack article by the estimable Nick Cohen on analysis of far-right support for Putin.
Worth a read IMO.
Also Andrew Rawnsley in the Guardian.
To anyone familiar with the interaction of politics (fringe and mainstream) and foreign policy in the UK and US in the 1930’s the phrase “first as tragedy, then as farce, but also bloody tragedy again”(©JohnSF, 2022) comes to mind.
The really infuriating thing is that the objective information shows that Russia can be beaten.
And these maroons are the ones who bore on about the failure of “moral fibre” in the west due to “woke” or whatever their boo-word of the week is.
Idiots.
Like the reactionary aristocrats who chuntered on about the “decadence” of Britain versus “virile” Germany in the 1930’s.
Ask the Nazis who signed the surrender at Luneberg how that turned out for them.
@JohnSF: From the Guardian piece, this:
makes me think of what noted Ukrainian Leon Trotsky is reputed to have said:
“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
It amazes me, and saddens me, that after the events of the early- to mid-20th-century there are still 42% of people “across 28 democracies” who have convinced themselves a war in Europe won’t ever be interested in them.
@Mikey:
I’d like to see a breakdown of this by country. And is it averaged by country, or per capita?
If by country one surly Russian in Lichtenstein might make all the difference, LOL
The polls I’ve paid most attention too are UK, where support is WAY higher; support levels come at around 80% which is quite remarkable.
Aha!
I think I may have found the polling report this is based on: IPSOS World Response to the War in Ukraine.
Totals look like they are really dragged down by returns from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Singapore, Thailand, India, and of course, our little cuckoo in the nest, Hungary.
@DK:
More than just white supremacy, it’s various bigotries plus preference for “strong leader” authoritarianism plus preference for abrogating democracy in favor of getting their way.
I really hate calling them “fake” Christians, there are a variety of ways to be Christian, doing it differently is not being fake.
Some are not much religious, “Christian” being more about tribal identity than being religious. Others really are religious, in varied ways. But they all mostly have bigotry and authoritarianism in common, together with the belief that white people are the biggest targets of racial discrimination.
@charon: Additionally, authoritarianism is not an ideology that has particularly troubled Christians and especially not if they were persuaded that the authoritarians would pull in their general direction. Evangelical segments who are claiming concern about oppression are more playing a political game than concerned for their “rights” in my reading of them.
This is what it looks like when Republiqans get tired of seeing someone else winning.
It sounds more like a teenager who is getting bored with a video game.
All they have to do is tune into Tucker Carlson…
@charon:
Except they are not doing it “differently”, they are inverting or straight up denying a lot of the core beliefs and structures. You can only modify something so much before it becomes something else and thus is “fake” if claimed to be the “real thing”. I know there’s a lot of people who claim the only thing one must be in order to be Christian is to claim Christ is Lord but that means rejecting literally everything Christ said and did regarding His followers and practices in their own holy books. Christian Nationalism has extremely little to do with anything historically Christian and everything to do with historical power struggles under the veneer of faith.
Think of it like a brand name: everyone wants the name for its value to others and implied quality and benefits. However if start changing the product enough to the point where only the name is the same, then you are clinging to the brand name to sell it. Christianity itself was a subsect of Judaism until it was considered too different to be lumped under its founding principles; LDS was a Christian sect that spun off in its own direction that’s fundamentally different on theological level but still wants to remain under the old nomenclature. It’s been suggested such divergent groups some other name to more accurately depict their belief structure but it gets violently rejected each time for sheer branding – they want to be “Christian” even as they inch further away on the spectrum. At some point, you have to accept you are your own product and can stand on your own brand name. That doesn’t mean rejecting any particular belief or profession of faith, merely acknowledging that being X deviations away from the norm means you are your own beast.
@KM:
Bingo. If you morph “Welcome the Stranger” into “S**t on The Stranger at every opportunity, exploit and oppress them and then congratulate yourself for being a “person of faith” every 15 minutes or so… well, I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus had in mind.
@KM:
Counter-point: their behavior is totally consistent with much of the last 2,000 years of Christian behavior. Don’t “No True Scotsman” away group responsibility to deal with bad actors.
See also, THE ‘FAKE CHRISTIAN’ DEFLECTION AND CONTRARIAN CONCERN TROLLING: HOW NOT TO WRITE ABOUT EVANGELICAL AUTHORITARIANISM