McConnell: ‘Strategic and Moral Malpractice’
Mitch McConnell
There was no desire to say anything less than what was considered correct.
“Starving Ukraine of needed capabilities wasn’t a smart way for the Biden administration to avoid escalation (with Russia) and neither is it a political master stroke by some of the administration’s Republican opponents,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) about Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and McConnell’s persistence in getting the Senate-passed foreign aid bill up for a vote in the House.
“It is strategic and moral malpractice,” he declared.
In fact, McConnell summarized, it is downright dangerous.
“It risks condemning Ukraine and undermining our own national interest,” he claimed on the Senate floor.
McConnell has pressed Johnson to bring the Senate-passed $95 billion aid package up for a vote, reported Alexander Bolton, writing for The Hill.
McConnell says American credibility with its allies in Europe and Asia is at risk and that a failure to pass the aid package will hurt trust in the U.S. government internationally, Bolton wrote.
There are critics of Ukraine and additionally, U.S. spending going to the war-plagued country. McConnell, however, is correct that deciding not to fund that country is poor risk management and highly questionable morally.
A large segment of America was pained for a long while when Russia was inflicting death, rapes, kidnappings and other violence and destruction on Ukraine. The domestic public seems to have forgotten that now. Losses are still happening. Suffering is still occurring.
The court of public opinion and the U.S. government tiring of it all and thinking about no longer supporting Ukraine seems to be anti-American, in that is is giving up on a fight and what it considers its role in helping other countries in need, especially when the Russian government remains a danger to national and international security.
It seems reasonable to expect escalation, not de-escalation, as McConnell asserts, without U.S. support for Ukraine in the form of aid.
People regularly make bold claims in government, politics and society that are more emotional reasoning than fact yet when McConnell strongly claims that “It is strategic and moral malpractice,” to not provide additional aid for Ukraine to support its fight against an intruder, there is more truth to that than we might realize now and will plausibly come to regret in coming months and years.
There are few signs that Russian leader Vladimir Putin has plans to cease a planned takeover of Ukraine and retreat.
Even if he wanted, his ego and reputation infatuation and self belief as a dominating ‘winner’ won’t allow for it.
Yes, this delay and resistance “… risks condemning Ukraine and undermining our own national interest...,” as McConnell stresses. It’s a valid, important and possibly, critical point.
Like or dislike him, and he has probably earned much of the anger directed towards him, on this particular matter, McConnell is a voice that should be heard, more reasonably considered, trusted and heeded. What he is saying isn’t an overstatement or false.
Communication Intelligence
April, 2024
