The World Gets ‘War Weary’ in Ukraine

So, for America, it’s a ‘proxy war,’ as Ukraine fights off Russia’s attempt to take over a sovereign nation that threatens to move toward Europe and NATO membership.

Let’s not get sloppy about definitions in such a serious situation: “a proxy war is a military conflict in which one or more third parties directly or indirectly support one or more state or nonstate combatants in an effort to influence the conflict's outcome and thereby to advance their own strategic interests or to undermine those of their opponents.”

The Ukraine-Russian war fits that description as neatly as possible, as support in the West advances its own interests and—best of all—only requiring military arms and money. No troops required, thank you very much.

But American support is getting shaky, and the reasons test my patience

Think back a decade or two.

The U.S. fought in Vietnam for eight years, spent $276 billion and sent 58,220 American kids home in body-bags. Then, having learned nothing about the futility of such efforts, we foolishly engaged ourselves in America’s longest war in Afghanistan. That was on the menu thanks to George Bush riding along as Dick Cheney’s wingman. That little escapade made Cheney a rich man (see Dick Cheney’s Fingerprints) and actually lasted four times as long as WWII. The Afghan War cost $300 million a day over twenty years, which is $2 trillion folks and yet we left both countries with our tails between our legs.

So, there’s much to be said in support of proxy wars

Except, of course, they don’t make much money for those standing on the sidelines.

But Ukraine isn’t winning fast enough to suit us, what with a presidential election looming closer and Joe Biden getting jitters. Even as NATO stands firm, Republicans are grumbling, as they tend to do when a Democrat is in the Oval Office. Having spent a mere $75 billion there so far, a divided Congress moves ever closer to letting Ukraine swing in the wind. Can you imagine the feelings in Ukrainian mothers as they shelter their children in basements? NATO, standing firm and supplying weaponry as best it can, now knows that alliances with America are as solid as its political will when an election draws near.

Is the United States willing to allow a Russian victory?

Does anyone in America really care? Or are they tired as well, with Congress tearing the fabric of our republic to shreds in a feeding-frenzy of self-interest?

According to an aide, Zelensky feels betrayed by his Western allies. They have left him without the means to win the war, only the slim possibility to survive it. What was, until five or six months ago, the bravest refusal by a small country attacked by a major power, is now an inconvenient complication with a major election coming within a year.

And what a difference that year makes

Joe Biden snuggled up to two major fascist leaders in Saudi (I will make them pay- Feb 26, 2021) and Israel (When this crisis is over, there must be a concentrated effort for all the parties, Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders, to put us on a path toward a two-state peace- Oct 25, 2023).

But now he’s shaking hands and smiling with these two criminals, Benjamin Netanyahu, and murderer Mohammed bin Salman. Our man in the White House is offering both nations weaponry and financial support. Putin must be smiling and counting his chickens.

I live in Europe and from what I read, Europe no longer trusts or even understands the United States

And it’s not Trump, although his presidency unsettled Europe to a very great degree. Trump is by no means the cause, rather he’s the result of a nation that abandoned its middle class and trusted its future to technocrats and privatization, ending up with a corporatocracy. There’s no room in America for both a middle-class and the absurd winner-take-all wealth of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

And now President Biden has chosen to abandon what little credibility we had left as a beacon of individual freedom, to play political games with dictators, tyrants and murderers.

Too unsure and too politically weak to call out the Saudis and Israelis, too powerless to lead NATO to unquestioned support for Ukraine and quite likely too publicly unpopular to be re-elected, it would be nice to feel he’s a shoo-in against a Republican Party that’s coming apart at the seams. But Joe carries too much baggage. He’s been inside the government for 45 years and perhaps no man is visionary enough to survive that.

If you think that’s not the reason America may abandon a courageous ally at a critical time in their national survival, you simply have not been paying attention. And I can’t really blame you for that. Attention is a scarce commodity these days.