Ukraine Allies Begin Trying to Peel Off as Public Realizes Skeptical Conservatives Were Right All Along

By Samantha Chang October 4, 2023 at 9:56am

As the United States buckles under the weight of crippling inflation, soaring crime and an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis, open-ended support for the war in Ukraine is crumbling.

Jim Townsend, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy during the Obama administration, said public sentiment for bankrolling a protracted war is waning.

“Whether it’s Afghanistan fatigue, Iraq fatigue, Balkans fatigue, fatigue is a naturally occurring condition in any kind of warfare, particularly involving the U.S. or other democracies,” he told The Washington Times in an article published Monday. “We get fatigued pretty fast. We want quick results.”

Townsend said overhyped, unrealistic expectations that U.S. aid would immediately crush the Russian military have fueled disappointment in the conflict, which shows no signs of ending anytime soon,

“In a war like this, where the Ukrainians are having to go up against the entrenched Russian lines, this is how it’s going to look,” Townsend said.

“Anyone expecting a big Hollywood-style charge by Ukraine, they’re smoking dope. They don’t have any idea how war works. This is World War I.”

Meanwhile, the European Union and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed optimism that Western leaders will continue to willingly finance the Ukraine war effort.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, reaffirmed the organization’s ongoing support for Ukraine.

“The EU’s commitment is clear & our support continues in all dimensions,” he wrote Monday in a social media post published to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Should the US end all support for the Ukrainian military?

Today, we discussed the overarching support to Ukraine:
– from security perspective
– on the military side
– on EU accession and reform process
– on accountability
– the peace formula

The EU’s commitment is clear & our support continues in all dimensions.https://t.co/mjxiqmdWVV

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 2, 2023

For his part, Zelenskyy keeps pressing for money and arms.

“Continued EU military aid for Ukraine is important, both immediate and long-term, as well as financial assistance and sanctions pressure on Russia,” he wrote on X.

I met with @JosepBorrellF.

I appreciate the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv that proved unity in support for Ukraine.

Continued EU military aid for Ukraine is important, both immediate and long-term, as well as financial assistance and sanctions pressure on Russia. pic.twitter.com/ZKEffK4kWp

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 2, 2023

However, Eastern European support for the ongoing war is dwindling. Public sentiment in Poland — which had been a vocal supporter of Ukraine — is wavering.

“Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person, clinging to anything available,” Polish President Andrzej Duda told journalists last month, the Financial Times reported. “A drowning person is extremely dangerous, capable of pulling you down to the depths … simply drown the rescuer.”

As the Financial Times noted, Poland and Ukraine are also engaged in a knotty trade dispute over grain imports, with Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party aiming to protect Poland’s farmers from external competition.

“The Ukrainians are doing things that are against their interest, like for example to fight with Poland and try to convince the European Union to open our market,” Janusz Kowalski, Poland’s deputy agriculture minister, told the Financial Times.

“When we look at the whole picture, not only agriculture, it is not in their interest because the crisis of Polish agriculture will lead to the erosion of social support to help Ukraine.”

Poland isn’t the only Eastern European country that was previously a major Ukraine supporter. Slovakia, which a report in The New York Times on Saturday called one of the “strongest backers” of the Kyiv government, just elected a populist party that’s committed to ending the country’s aid to Ukraine. The leader of the victorious Smer Party, former Prime Minister Robert Fico, favors peace talks that are likely to be rejected by a Ukraine determined to expel all Russian invaders.

In Washington, the Biden administration has sent more than $135 billion to Ukraine since the February 2022 Russian invasion, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Meanwhile, the much more powerful threat of China has been left free by the Biden White House and State Department to bully its neighbors and challenge the U.S. Navy for dominance in the Pacific without fear of consequences.

For many conservatives, the administration’s decision-making has essentially reverted to the post-Cold War, pre-9/11 mindset of the United States trying to police the world.

But many conservatives argue that even the world’s only superpower is incapable of imposing its will — and imposing world peace — on a globe made up of independent, sovereign nations with their own desires, ambitions and issues (as the Poland-Ukraine grain dispute shows).

Much of the American public is beginning to realize how right that argument is. The huge outlay of taxpayer money and military armament is well past the point where the return on the investment is questionable.

An August poll reported by CNN showed most Americans oppose more U.S. funding for Ukraine. Disputes over Ukraine strategy were a major part of the conflicts in Congress that brought about the near-shutdown of the government over the weekend and the Republican clash in the House that resulted in the ouster of now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.

Americans have noticed that during the same 19 months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States has been roiled by crushing inflation, a border invasion of its own that grows daily, thanks to the Biden administration, a harrowing, deadly drug epidemic and skyrocketing crime

CBS POLL: Two-thirds of Americans describe the economy as ‘bad,’ while 70% say their paychecks aren’t keeping up with rising prices pic.twitter.com/oq4FPiZxxz

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 30, 2023

Our bridges, subways and highways are crumbling while Americans struggle with runaway grocery bills and gas prices.

Instead of fixing the problems ravaging this nation, the Biden administration is sending U.S. tax dollars to fight a foreign war and defend another nation’s borders while ours remain under siege.

Lindsey Graham,

For your reference I have attached a map that has South Carolina circled in red.

That is the state you represent. The country you represent is the United States of America.

I circled in yellow the current territory considered Ukraine. That is not part of the… pic.twitter.com/WAaUwlisUu

— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 1, 2023

All the billions shipped to Ukraine have done nothing to improve the daily lives of Americans. Instead, it has only brought us closer to World War III. It is far past time to cut our losses.

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