Senseless

Senseless is a rather harsh word to use in describing a person or a government.

Yet, it fully conveys what I believe is U.S. foreign policy with respect to Ukraine and Israel.

The U.S. appears to forget the meaning and the effects of invasion, of terrorism and how it reacted to the attacks of 9/11. At that time, invading Afghanistan and Iraq was a justifiable response to the attack by Al-Qaida.

While the result was a disaster for U.S. interests, this was not due to the invasion of Afghanistan. Rather, it was due to the irresponsible invasion of Iraq and the drawing away of U.S. forces and public interest from Afghanistan thereby allowing the Taliban to survive to fight another day. And that day is today – when the Taliban is in power oppressing women and girls to an extent unseen in any other country.

Israel today faces the same challenge, especially after Hamas’s vicious sneak attack on October 7th.

The only way to secure its security is to destroy Hamas. Hamas is a death cult, preferring the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians to the recognition of Israel’s right to exist. For proof, look no further than to the reaction of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh when he found out from the safety of Qatar that three of his sons and four grandchildren were killed in an Israeli strike.

Haniyeh’s response to the deaths was “God has graced us with the martyrdom of my sons, grandchildren … my family has given sixty martyrs … I thank God for this honor … they have achieved the highest honor of martyrdom”.

This is the mentality of leadership with whom the U.S. and others want Israel to negotiate. Unfortunately, Hamas is a cult of death that worships martyrdom and encourages Palestinians to die “en masse” if necessary to achieve its political goals – the destruction of Israel and then elimination of Jews worldwide.

And yet, for the simple need to assuage the Democrat left and the Muslim vote, President Biden is calling for Israel to negotiate a ceasefire with this terrorist group.

There was a ceasefire in place prior to October 7^th that Hamas broke in the most vicious way. If you were an Israeli, would you trust Hamas to respect a new ceasefire? Would you trust the Hamas leadership that has preferred to lead thousands of Gazans to their slaughter rather than return the hostages many of whom Hamas now claims it cannot find?

With respect to Ukraine, U.S. leaders are again naïve in their calculations.

They are blocking Ukraine from attacking Russia even though Russia has destroyed much of Ukraine and murdered tens of thousands of civilians.

Here they use two ludicrous arguments.

First, they say that this will provoke the Russians to escalate. 

Escalate to what? Russia has already destroyed much of Ukraine’s infrastructure.

If one studies history (and this is a highly useful exercise), one notes that on 7 March 1936 German troops re-occupied the Rhineland, a de-militarised zone according to the Treaty of Versailles. This action was directly against the terms which Germany had accepted after the First World War. This move, in terms of foreign relations, threw the European allies, especially France and Britain, into confusion. Their ultimate reaction – nothing.

This emboldened Hitler to rearm Germany and push for taking over the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. Again, the West capitulated to Hitler and at Munich in 1938 signed Czechoslovakia’s death warrant.

Nothing emboldens a dictator more than realizing that they can get away with anything. And Russia’s President Putin wants all Eastern and Central Europe under his control and is willing to achieve this goal – unfortunately, in this case, with U.S. help.

The only buffer protecting the West is Ukraine, fighting a war to defend the rest of Europe from falling to Putin’s plans.

The second reason that U.S. officials give for blocking Ukraine from damaging Russia’s infrastructure is that this will increase the global price of oil. This reminds one of the U.S. decisions to stay out of World War II in 1939 to preserve its trade with Nazi Germany despite knowing the nature of Hitler’s regime.

Ukraine is fighting for its very survival. To ask it to do so with both its hands tied behind their backs borders on the criminal.

Once again, the United States is playing ostrich with its foreign policy.

I don’t think that Putin would risk nuclear war with the West should push come to shove. But he will continue to press onward with his expansionist plans if he meets no resistance from the West, especially the U.S. that is way behind its European allies in drawing a red line.

France, Holland, and the Czech Republic are all calling for Putin to be stopped and are ratcheting up their support for Kiev.

But nothing can replace U.S. weapons, technology, and support.

In these two cases, the U.S. is pursuing a dangerous course not only for Americans but for world peace.

Yet, this is not the worst-case scenario.

Should Putin puppet Donald Trump win in November, Ukraine will be tossed to the wolves as will NATO. Putin will achieve his dreams at no cost to Russia.

That said, it isi fair to wonder why Putin even needs Trump when Biden and the Democrats are reacting this way?

For the U.S. time is of the essence.

If Ukraine falls, we are all in deep trouble.