Why conservatives oppose the war

Patrick Buchanan has retired at 84 after a long and influential career as a writer, TV commentator and presidential advisor (Nixon, Ford and Reagan). He saw through George H.W. Bush and later opposed the Gulf War. He opposes the blank check Washington has given Zelensky in this war.

“For us, the greatest stake in this Russia-Ukraine war is not who ends up in control of Luhansk, Donetsk or Kherson, but that we not be drawn into a military conflict that would put us on the escalator to a war with Russia, a world war and perhaps a nuclear war.

“Nothing in Eastern or Central Europe is worth a major U.S. war with Russia that could go nuclear and cost millions of American lives.”

That last sentence is heresy to the hysterical hawks, but the line rings true for conservatives who, after initial rah-rah support for Ukraine, are having second thoughts.

DC_Draino @DC_Draino

We’ve sent over $100 BILLION in weapons and aid to Ukraine and DC insiders are getting rich Now you know why they wanted Trump out at any cost Peace isn’t profitable

On December 6, 2022, CNN reported on a poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs showed Americans are split with 48% saying the US should support Ukraine “for as long as it takes, even if American households have to pay higher gas and food prices as a consequence.”

That was down from 58% in July.

47% said the US should “urge Ukraine to settle for peace as soon as possible so that the costs aren’t so great for American households, even if that means Ukraine will lose some territory.”

It is conservatives who question giving unquestioned support.

On Election Day, the Wall Street Journal reported, “The majority of Americans support continuing aid to Ukraine in what will likely be a prolonged war with Russia, but support is becoming a partisan issue as Republican opposition grows to helping the country, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll.”

The story also said, “Some 30% of respondents overall said in the new survey they believe the administration is doing too much to help Ukraine, up from 6% in a March Journal poll. The change was driven by a big shift among GOP voters: 48% of Republicans now say the U.S. is doing too much, up from 6% in the previous survey.

“The portion of GOP voters who said the U.S. isn’t doing enough to help Ukraine fell to 17%, a steep drop from 61% in March.”

This development was predictable. The media and the politicians usually have little trouble in getting Americans to support a foreign war early on. Then Americans wake up to the fact that we are investing billions in an effort halfway across the world that we should have little interest in.

Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs

Can I add Ukraine as dependents on my taxes this year?

The reason conservatives are saying no to Ukraine is as simple as ABC.

A is for America First. Why are we so hellbent on protecting its borders when Washington refuses to protect our borders? Our nation is overrun by illegal aliens, gangbangers and fentanyl that this administration allows to come in through an unguarded border.

110,000 Americans died last year from drug overdoses last year, another record.

Put America First. Instead of shipping 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, place them along our border where they would do the most good for us.

A is also for Afghanistan where this idiot president left billions of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment behind when he surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban, Now the Taliban is negotiating a sale of that equipment to Russia. U.S. taxpayers likely will pay to arm both sides of this war.

B is for Biden. We have an impulsive and ignorant commander-in-chief who is a compulsive liar who, depending on the day of the week, is a lifeguard, a truck driver, a college professor or a civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

Robert Gates, Obama’s defense secretary in the Obama administration, once said that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Who am I to argue? Gates voted for him, which shows how much he cares about our country.

C is for Corruption. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the smartest con artists headed to Ukraine because that was where the money was. They became oligarchs, who became rich enough to bribe politicians in America and throughout Europe. They attracted America’s grifting class.

A year after the 2008 election, Politico reported, “In Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities in Ukraine, American political consultants who worked against one another in Iowa and New Hampshire and then in the general election are facing off again in a somewhat surreal Eastern European replay of the 2008 campaign.

“The firm headed by Hillary Clinton’s former chief strategist, Mark Penn, is helping run incumbent President Victor Yushchenko’s campaign. Meanwhile Paul Manafort, whose firm worked on Republican John McCain’s losing effort, and Tad Devine, a top strategist on the Democratic presidential campaigns of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, are consulting for Victor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian frontrunner in the polls.

“For Penn, Manafort and Devine, foreign elections have been a lucrative source of business for years. But for the Chicago-based media consulting firm AKPD, the contract to help guide Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s campaign is part of a new, growth area of business that presented itself after the firm helped Barack Obama win the White House last fall.”

John Kerry’s stepson and Biden’s son arrived in Kyiv a few years later and Burisma poured thousands of dollars on them, and maybe a few hookers and some blow for Hunter.

There also are reasons DEF.

D is for Distrust. None of America’s federal institutions is worthy of our trust. The Supreme Court won’t tell us who leaked the Dobbs decision. Congress let protesters inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, then shot and killed one of them, blamed them, and arrested them as insurrectionists. Don’t get me started on the FBI, the CDC, the FDA or any of the other alphabet agencies.

The military is lost in space now. West Point is woke and teaches political correctness. Our generals want only a few men in good drag. The Pentagon finds excuses to purge conservatives from its ranks. Our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is allied with Red China. We know this because he promised his counterpart in Beijing to give him a heads up if we planned a sneak attack. He bragged to Bob Woodward about this.

D is also for destruction. Yahoo reported on January 28, “President Biden’s chief intelligence adviser raised fresh concerns Thursday night that Russian missile attacks are having a devastating impact on the Ukrainian economy, noting that the war has already reduced the country's gross domestic product by nearly one-third.”

That economic collapse is worse than the Great Depression.

E is for Escalation. Oh, it is not another Vietnam where we send in a few advisers and a few years later we have 500,000 young men there. The escalation will come from Russia and its allies: the Taliban, Iran, North Korea and Red China.

Democrats won’t drag us directly into this war. They won’t have to. Putin and his buddies will. It is so obvious that even Biden knows it. That he will not stop this insane slide into the incinerator of nuclear war is telling.

E also is for endless. Zelensky does not want this to end. In an interview with Britain's Sky News, he said that he will not meet with Putin to end the war. He said, “It is not interesting for me. Not interesting to meet, not interesting to speak.”

Zelensky also said, “After [the] full-scale invasion, for me he is nobody, nobody.”

If he is fighting nobody, then why are we giving him a dime?

F is for Freedom. Except this war is not about freedom. This is about money. When you write a check to Ukraine, a portion of it goes to the friends and family of the Democrat Party’s hierarchy because Ukraine is a corruptocracy with Zelensky being only the latest in a string of front men for some rich oligarch.

F is also for Foolish. Romney tweeted a video, in which he said, “History has taught us that when one country feels they can invade another country with little consequence, violence spreads and we become vulnerable to being pulled into a conflict. Supporting Ukraine is not just the right thing to do, it’s imperative for U.S. national security.”

No, history has taught us that he is a conman.

Geography has taught us Ukraine is 5,000 miles away from my home in Poca, West Virginia.

Arithmetic has taught us that when you are $33 trillion in debt you cannot afford to borrow another $100 billion to give to a crook.

Americans are catching on, led by conservatives. We are not opposed to war per se. We oppose unnecessary ones, and this one has nothing to do with protecting America or its allies. Ukraine was not invited to join NATO because both Russia and NATO needed a neutral zone as a buffer between them. To be sure, Putin broke that unwritten agreement when he invaded Donbas. But we have the option of honoring the agreement anyway. Biden chose not to because a war will line his pockets.

Do not confuse the opposition to war with pacifism because the liberal doves are taking a powder on this.

Oh, Code Pink us calling for peace. Sure. It said, “The war in Ukraine is a disaster for the people of Ukraine and a terrible threat to us all, including increasing the danger of nuclear war. We oppose the Russian invasion and call for the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops. We recognize that the expansion of NATO and the aggressive approach of Western nations have helped cause the crisis and we demand an end to NATO expansion. We also oppose sanctions that will harm ordinary Russians and call on all countries to welcome refugees fleeing the war. Join us as we build a massive, unified response with peace-loving people around the world to say No to War in Ukraine; Yes to Negotiations and Peace.”

That’s nice. They’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. But there is no call to cut off the $100 billion in aid the United States is sending to Ukraine. The money and munitions enable Zelensky prolong the war. Putin started it and Zelensky refuses to stop it because both men profit from this war. Code Pink and the rest of the cocktail party elitists are sitting this one out. The Hollywood celebrities are too busy mocking Trump to notice Armageddon approaching.

They say war has no winners. Putin and Zelensky prove that assumption is wrong. As I wrote 10 months ago, on April 5, 2022, “Economy got you down? Are people chanting F-bombs at you? Do polls show only 21.8% of your countrymen would re-elect you despite widespread support two years ago?

“Well, bub, have I got good news for you. All you need is a war. The Russo-Ukraine War has been very, very good to Putin, Zelensky and CNN.

“Just last July, Zelensky was on the ropes. He was doing worse than Biden at the time.”

Zelensky’s re-election was favored by only 22% of Ukrainians before the war. Now he is a hero. Putin, too, rose in popularity. Alas, nothing could save CNN. If it were the only channel on TV, most people would change channels and watch an empty screen.

I ended that column, “War. What is it good for? Absolutely plenty!

“This war is such a mess that Putin, Zelensky and Biden should be gone by now. But the first two have rebounded, and Biden is getting good marks on the war right now.

“War is very good -- except to the thousands maimed or killed.

“And a million displaced persons.

“But the politicians and the media make out like bandits because, well, they are bandits.”

What has changed in the interim is thousands maimed or killed is now hundreds of thousands and 14 million people have been displaced. That is one-third of the nation, which shows you how much Zelensky cares about the welfare of his people.

Conservatives do care about Ukrainians and want the war to end.

We also put America First. We know Putin has nukes and that most of them have our name on them. Wars have a history of expanding. This one is like a big balloon and it is going up.

Tomorrow’s column is “Tinfoil hat media.”

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