Civilization

Are the Americans tired of Ukraine?

The US economy is on the brink of recession and billions of dollars are being spent to help Ukraine, some Republicans argue. Young Democrats, on the other hand, those under the sign of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, have a sentiment for Russia, which is regarded as the heir to the motherland of the working people - the Soviet Union.

All over my country, in big cities and small towns, Ukrainian flags are flying on American homes. Over the past year, Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress have united in defence of freedom. This is what Americans are and this is what they do.
Joe Biden, Warsaw 22.02.2023


Shown in almost every country in the world, and broadcast live in dozens, the image of US President Joe Biden speaking in the arcades of the Royal Castle in Warsaw is already iconic. If one were to judge it only in aesthetic terms, it is certainly more powerful than the images of Ronald Reagan's or John F. Kennedy's famous speeches in Berlin. But is the eloquence of what the current US president said as powerful as the words of his predecessors?

Let's hope so, and that we will soon find out, because unlike an image, words need time to mature into legends. Especially since Biden's speech lacked bon mots, easy-to-remember, powerful, symbolic phrases, such as this one from Kennedy's speech: "I am a Berliner". Perhaps one was found: 'Kiev holds strong'.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE In contrast to the usually shallow, twisted and almost cowardly displays by the current leaders of Western Europe, all three speeches by the US presidents indicated in an uncompromising, clear manner where there is good and where there is evil, where there is freedom and where there is oppression by a cruel empire. For Ukrainians, Poles and others in our part of Europe, this clear distinction between light and darkness is meant to be a guarantee that the US will not change its stance. That it will steadfastly stand by Ukraine and help it financially and by providing military equipment until victory.

Neither so large nor so small

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Meanwhile, information coming out of America indicates that this may not be so certain, as the consensus to support Kiev is becoming less and less widespread.

A survey by the Pew Research Center shows that 26% of Americans believe that the United States is giving too much aid to Ukraine. This is higher than those who would like to see this aid increased - 20%. The percentage of those who are reluctant to further US involvement has risen by as many as 19 percentage points in a year - from 6% to 26%. The change of front, the increasing scepticism is particularly evident on the Republican side. As many as 40% of their voters believe that aid to Ukraine is too much.

These polls are not worth underestimating as the Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives.

Then there are the polls published at the end of January by NBC News. These show that on the question of whether Congress should provide more aid to Ukraine - 49% are in favour and 47% against.

If one were to paraphrase a well-known saying about Russia, one would have to say that the enthusiasm of the Americans for helping Ukraine is not as great as the speech in Warsaw and Joe Biden's annual State of the Union address to Congress suggest, nor as small as the leaders of France or Germany would like it to be. They, on the other hand, are keen to end the war as soon as possible, regardless of what this would entail for Ukraine, and return to business with Vladimir Putin's regime. There is no doubt that, having signed even the most humiliating, unjust treaties or agreements, they would proclaim that Russia has returned to the path of peace, to the family of civilised states.

In Poland, part of the opposition simplistically interprets the scepticism of the Republicans and even claims that if Trump were president, he would get along with Putin. These are licentious, intellectually mealy-mouthed tales for the purposes of domestic politics in Poland. It is such division-building: "our", i.e. the opposition's, brave President Biden and "their" - the authorities - Trump, Putin's collaborator.

Meanwhile, the issue of who supports what and why is very complicated and full of paradoxes, but worth showing, if only because it poses a challenge for Polish diplomacy.

The unpredictable Trump

If one were to analyse only the actions of Donald Trump as president and Joe Biden up to 24 February 2022, i.e. the day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, most observers would surely bet that it would be the former who would be much firmer, much tougher on Putin than the current occupant of the White House. This is also borne out by the opinions of Americans. A poll by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies shows that as many as 62% of them say that if Donald Trump were president, the Moscow tyrant would not dare invade Ukraine. This is the view of 85% of Republicans and as many as 38% of Democrats. 59% also believe that Putin gave the order to invade because he thought Biden was weak.

About a quarter (26%) of those surveyed now say the US is providing too much support to Ukraine, 31% say adequate, and 20% would like additional assistance. Donald Trump was the president who strongly opposed the completion of Nord Stream 2 and announced that sanctions would be imposed on any company that put its hand to it. He has spoken repeatedly about Germany's dependence on Russian fuel supplies and Berlin's funding of Putin's regime. He pointed out the absurdity of a situation in which Germany fails to honour its alliance commitments and at the same time expects the United States to be a free bodyguard to defend it from the one it is helping to arm.
Iconic image - the US president speaks at the Kubicki Arcades in Warsaw. Photo: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / Reuters / Forum
Joe Biden did exactly the opposite of Trump - he gave the go-ahead for the completion of the Russian-German pipe and imposed major restrictions on US energy production, increasing the global importance of Russian supplies.

Donald Trump was also, apart from Woodrow Wilson, the only US president to give the go-ahead for American soldiers to directly engage in combat with Russian (or previously Bolshevik) soldiers. In February 2018, in the battle of Dajr az Zaur in Syria, the Americans almost completely annihilated columns of President Bashar al Assad's troops and the Wagner Group, which had attacked positions of the armed Syrian opposition and an oil field protected by the Kurds and Americans. Up to 600 of Putin's 'dogs of war' were to be killed in the bombing and fighting. Even the Kremlin was unable to hide the humiliating defeat, but chose not to take any retaliatory steps.

The former president has also significantly increased the presence of US troops in Poland and on NATO's eastern flank. And on top of this, Donald Trump has a reputation as an unpredictable politician, so there is someone to fear.

Provisional State

Meanwhile, Joe Biden, by 24 February 2022, has done much to suspect that, in the face of a Russian invasion, he will prove to be a weak, indecisive, perhaps even hypocritical and opportunistic leader like Olaf Scholz or Emmanuel Macron. The first year of his presidency is encumbered by the disastrous evacuation from Afghanistan, a downright disgraceful escape from Kabul along the lines of that from Saigon in 1975.

It was Joe Biden, as Vice President, who was directly responsible for US policy towards Ukraine during Barack Obama's term. His numerous trips to Kiev have resulted in nothing but a lucrative job for his son Hunter at Ukraine's largest energy and fuel company Burisma, related scandals and violent interference in the functioning of President Petro Poroshenko's administration.

Along with Hillary Clinton and Obama, Biden was one of those politicians who orchestrated the reset with Russia.

Until the war broke out, Ukraine had a reputation in the United States as a corrupt country, ruled by oligarchic clans, almost bankrupt, not only economically and militarily, but also politically, not worth investing in. Just a temporary state, a rebellious region that a strong leader like Putin will sort out.

After the outbreak of the war over the Donbas and the seizure of Crimea in 2014, the Obama administration sent blankets and medical supplies as aid to Ukraine. It was not until the Trump era that the Ukrainians received their first javelins.

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To top it all off, the Republicans believe they have somewhat unbalanced accounts with Ukraine. The first is the highly suspect business dealings of the president's son, Hunter Biden, and the second related to the impeachment of Donald Trump. Its immediate cause, after all, was Trump's telephone conversation with President Zelenski and the ensuing nonsense accusations that the then US president wanted to force the Ukrainian leader to help him discredit his rival Joe Biden.

With this baggage of conviction and experience, Republicans and Democrats entered the Ukrainian-Russian war.

Biden, or a surprise for the Kremlin

Fortunately for Ukraine, for us and for the world, the Kremlin's prediction of the reaction of President Biden and his administration proved to be completely wrong.

And it doesn't matter what the president's motivation is at the moment - whether he wants to wash away the ignominy of fleeing Afghanistan, whether it was seen as a good opportunity to break Russia to pieces and prevent its alliance with China, or whether it was a torrent of compassion and admiration for a struggling nation. For as pathetic as it sounds, Americans, regardless of party colours, have a great appreciation for nations that, like them, can win their independence. And the current war is the founding act of Ukraine, just as the War of Independence 1776 - 1783 was for the United States.

Either way, President Biden has shown himself to be a true leader of a great power that stands on the side of goodness and freedom. To the surprise of the world and America itself, the one who was supposed to be weak has turned out to be strong.

Republicans don't want to pay for Kiev

But we are faced with another paradox. Well, the current occupant of the White House shows his power and prowess externally, but remains very weak in the United States itself. There is no denying that President Biden has a very poor record.

Republicans accuse him of taking better care of Ukraine's borders than those of the US. The great immigration crisis is a reality. The border with Mexico is being crossed by a record number of illegal immigrants, and the Biden administration remains indifferent to the issue, and certainly helpless. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was supposed to handle the great illegal immigration directly, is completely failing to deal with the problem.
From Central America via Mexico to the USA. Columns of migrants head towards the US border. August 2022 Photo: Juan Manuel Blanco/EPA/PAP
Another issue is the economic situation - low GDP growth and the highest inflation in nearly five decades. The war in Ukraine has pushed up fuel prices around the world, but under Trump, America has become completely self-sufficient in energy for the first time. It also became an exporter not only of gas but also of oil. Had it not been for Joe Biden's decisions to ban fracking, halting construction of the Keystone Pipeline oil pipelines, Americans refuelling would not have felt the effects of the war.

The US economy is on the brink of recession, meanwhile billions of dollars are being spent to help Ukraine, so argues some Republicans. On the anniversary of the Russian invasion, Marjorie Taylor Green of the House of Representatives announced a request for an audit of spending on Ukraine. She did so on the programme of Fox News television's biggest star, but also probably the most popular political commentator in the United States - Tucker Carlson. The excellent columnist seems to have some sort of personal obsession with Ukraine and is probably the biggest, and certainly the most vocal, opponent of providing aid to it.

Fox News is the television station unequivocally associated with Republican America. It is also the most-watched news station in the United States. However much we might like President Andrzej Duda's appearances on CNN or General Rajmund Andrzejczak's on MSNBC, Fox News has incomparably greater reach. In the United States, CNN is a downright niche station. From this point of view, a defence of the Ukrainian and Polish rationale on Fox News would therefore be of much greater value.

Congresswoman Green argues that there are many corrupt officials around President Zelenski and that he cannot control them. American taxpayers' money is therefore to be wasted. These claims are denied by Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Green's action is another such initiative. In January this year, 37 Republican congressmen called on the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, to show the full spending on Ukraine aid. A highly influential Republican, Matt Gaetz of Florida, introduced a draft resolution in the House of Representatives entitled. "Ukraine Fatigue Resolution". It has been signed by ten Republican congressmen. The Republicans demand that military and financial aid to Ukraine cease immediately and that the House of Representatives call on Ukraine and Russia to negotiate. A similar appeal is being made by Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance, who is demanding that President Biden come up with a plan to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

The Young Democrats prefer Putin

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But it is not only on the Republican side that there are people calling for an end to aid to Ukraine and forcing it into humiliating negotiations with Russia.

Back in October, 30 House of Representatives Democrats wrote a letter demanding that President Biden lead peace talks with the Putin regime. The letter was hidden before the November elections, but has now been pulled out again.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, now the best-known US Marxist, is leading the way in Democratic initiatives. This idol of the Polish left under the banner of 'Krytyka Polityczna', together with other socialists, even voted against the imposition of sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

Fortunately, all these anti-Ukrainian initiatives by Republicans and Democrats are ineffective, although they are eagerly picked up by the Kremlin. However, there are different motivations behind similar attitudes.

Some Republicans are displaying traditional isolationism, which very much boils down to a reluctance for the United States to become heavily involved globally. It is also partly the aforementioned unsettled accounts with Ukraine, as well as criticism of the Biden administration for domestic policy purposes. This is fairly easy but effective populism. Here is the US national debt at a record, unimaginable level of over $30 trillion, and they are allocating over 110 billion to a country on the other side of the globe.

The more sensible Republicans and Democrats, as well as the so-called deep state - made up of military officials, bureaucrats, lobbyists etc - point out that $115 billion is only 15% of the Pentagon's annual budget. That it is a very good investment, if one considers its purpose - to break Russia's military and economic power, to bring it to its knees. It comes out to a pittance if you even consider the trillion-dollar cost of the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. The military equipment alone, abandoned in Afghanistan, which ended up in the hands of the Taliban, was worth around $90 billion.
If Americans were tanking and not feeling the effects of the war, would their attitude to helping Ukraine be different? Photo MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA/PAP
Some Democrats, such as the young Marxists Ocasio Cortez and the Somali-born Ilhan Omar, have a fondness for Russia, which is still regarded as the heir to the fatherland of the working people - the Soviet Union. In the world of American campuses, where idols include the genocidaires such as Lenin and Stalin, Putin, who challenges the West, deserves admiration. The mental knots in these people are impossible to untangle.

The better, the worse

To conclude, one more paradox. The better things happen on the frontline, the worse it gets in terms of support for Ukraine. Just a year ago, 51% of Americans and 50% of Democrats said that Russia posed a serious threat to the United States. The willingness to help Ukraine was therefore significantly higher.

Now, after 12 months of war, when Russia has shown its misery, its rotten, corruption-ridden and nihilistic face, its fundamental, irreparable weakness, barely 29% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats see it as a threat. The inclination to help Ukraine is therefore less because the bear is drunk in a stupor, sick, moulted, toothless, clawless, i.e. not a threat. On the other hand, it can be seen that the $115 billion invested is yielding a great return, so perhaps it is worth spending more to kill the bear .

The percentage of adults who say the United States is giving too much aid to Ukraine has increased by six percentage points since last September and by 19 points since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted on 18 January.

This shift in opinion is mainly due to a growing number of Republicans who say that the US is giving too much support to Ukraine. Today, this view is shared by 40% of Republicans and independent Republican supporters, compared to 32% in the autumn. Last March, only 9% thought so. 15% of Democrats and independent Democratic supporters now say this. Last March, 5% held this view.

At that time, both Republicans (51 per cent) and Democrats (50 per cent) said the invasion posed a major threat to US interests. Since March 2022, the proportion of those in both parties who see the conflict as a major threat to US interests has fallen. Today, 43% of Democrats and only 29% of Republicans are convinced of this.

– Dariusz Matuszak
-Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski


TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

Main photo: President Joe Biden arrived in Kiev on 20 February on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo R4545 POU / Zuma Press / Forum
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