American Skepticism Grows as Ukraine War Approaches One-Year Mark

The body of a serviceman is coated in snow as a man takes photos of a destroyed Russian mi
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Kristina Wong

As the war in Ukraine nears the one-year mark this week, American skepticism of the conflict is growing but the Biden administration has yet to address it.

President Joe Biden on Monday visited Ukraine in a show of support and pledged another $500 million in military assistance for the embattled country, bringing the total military support from the U.S. to more than $29.8 billion since last year.

And during his recent State of the Union speech, Biden claimed: “America is united in our support for your country. We will stand with you as long as it takes.”

However, recent polls show that America is only growing more divided over the war.

A Pew Research survey conducted in late January showed those who say the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine has increased 19 percent over the last year. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, there was a rise of 31 percent who hold that view.

The Associated Press

Ukrainian military medics carry an injured Ukrainian serviceman evacuated from the battlefield into a hospital in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. The serviceman did not survive. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A separate NBC News poll conducted around that same time showed that Americans were almost evenly split on whether Congress should provide more aid to Ukraine — with 49 percent in favor and 47 percent against and a margin of error of three percent.

There was also outrage, mostly from the right, that Biden chose to visit Ukraine before visiting East Palestine, Ohio, which recently suffered a trail derailment and a subsequent toxic chemical release that led to an evacuation of nearby residents from their homes.

East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway told Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” that Biden’s trip to Ukraine before his town was the “biggest slap in the face.”

“That was the biggest slap in the face. That tells you right now he doesn’t care about us. So, he can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in…Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there, and not to us, and I’m furious,” Conaway said.

The Biden administration included $10 million for Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of the recent aid package.

Vice President Kamala Harris recently touted bipartisan support in Congress for aid to Ukraine during a visit to Munich, Germany.

But there is growing opposition there, too. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) recently proposed the Ukraine Fatigue Resolution, which calls on the Biden administration to end military and financial aid to Ukraine and urges combatants to reach a peace agreement.

And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reiterated in a recent interview with Donald Trump Jr. that there would be “no blank check” for Ukraine.

Progressives in Congress last November expressed desire for a diplomatic solution, but were quickly batted down by their caucus. They subsequently withdrew their letter altogether.

But anti-war sentiment is growing on the left as well. Members of the anti-war organization Code Pink recently confronted Biden while he was eating dinner at a D.C. restaurant.

There is growing concern among foreign policy experts that the Biden administration has no strategy in Ukraine.

The Biden administration has said repeatedly that it would support Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” but experts say it has not explained what its strategy is, or even what its objectives are.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about trying to “come to a common understanding of what the objectives. are.”

Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and author of Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America, told Fox News Digital, “The Biden administration has no strategy for victory, has no exit strategy.”

Dan Caldwell, a veteran Marine and vice president of the Center for Renewing America, told Breitbart News in a recent interview, “It’s quickly becoming a question of what we can actually do for Ukraine, not what we what we should do.”

The Associated Press

Ukrainian soldiers prepare a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer to fire at Russian positions in Kherson region, Ukraine, Jan. 9, 2023. A rapidly expanding group of U.S. and allied troops and contractors are using phones and tablets to communicate in encrypted chat rooms to provide real-time maintenance advice to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.  (AP Photo/Libkos, File)

“We have real constraints on defense industrial base, and on the ability of our national security apparatus to take on more than one challenge at a time,” he said.

“We are producing 25,000 to 30,000 155 millimeter artillery shells a month, but the Ukrainians are estimated to be firing 90,000 a month,” he said. “If they’re going go on the offensive, their firing rates are going to go up. We have significantly drawn down our stocks and we can’t currently replenish our own stock at these rates and ammunition expenditure. The reality is U.S. production is not going to even keep up to what the Ukrainians are firing, much less be able to backfill what we’re doing for at least another couple of years.”

He added:

We cannot continue with the status quo, it is unsustainable, and it is risking a larger war with a nuclear-armed Russia. They need to either end or significantly scale back further aid to Ukraine. And if there is further aid, it needs to be heavily-conditioned. And if they’re serious about challenges here at home and in other parts of the world like East Asia, that may have to demonstrate that they’re serious about changing America’s policy towards Ukraine.

“We have a $30 trillion national debt. We have a military that’s been worn down by 20 years of endless war in the Middle East. And we have a real economic [constraints]. So we have to accept the reality that the world has changed and better prioritize our national defense resources,” he said.

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook. 

 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.