Last night's first Republican Presidential Debate of the election season was one for the record books. The leading candidate, Former President Donald Trump, wasn't there, yet somehow he was an intricate part of the discussion between the candidates. Out of all the topics that were discussed, one in particular is very important to me, and that is our involvement in the war between Russia and Ukraine. 

It is no secret that our involvement in that war is controversial, to say the least. Our country is equally divided when it comes to our support, both financially and militarily. As a nation, like it or not, we are involved in this war, as RedState's own Jerry Wilson accurately points out in his piece. However, when can and or should our involvement stop? 

Enter Republican Presidential Candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. The two candidates clashed pretty heatedly on their different stances on the war, or at least on our involvement in it. On one hand, Ramaswamy took the stance of essentially cutting off financial and military support for Ukraine and utilizing those funds and resources to protect our southern border. On the other hand, Haley ripped Ramaswamy apart for not supporting Ukraine because they're a "pro-America" country and we need to support them to defeat Putin. That's the gist of their arguments. 

I believe Ramaswamy is correct in his views, at least when it comes to eliminating our continued support for Ukraine, and Haley is dead wrong. She showed her true colors as what is commonly referred to as a NeoCon when she doubled down on her support for Ukraine. 

Nikki Haley releases her answers to Tucker Carlson's questionnaire (which, as he noted, she didn't send back before last night's show).

DeSantis said supporting Ukraine in a "territorial dispute" wasn't in our national strategic interest; she says it is. pic.twitter.com/aisVf2zK6K

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) March 14, 2023

Here is where I take umbrage at Haley and her attack against Ramaswamy, and it was the moment when she scolded him for "having no foreign policy experience and it shows[ing]." Well, Mrs. Haley, I have some foreign policy experience, and I consider it up to par to debate with you on your stance. As a Combat Veteran, I took part in the institution of America's foreign policy with force. It was political elites like Haley, with a huge foreign policy background, that sent us to war in Afghanistan and Iraq and sent forces into Libya, Syria, and other places around the world. If that's the "foreign policy" you admire, then people need to dissociate themselves from you post haste. 

First, Ukraine is not an "American-friendly" nation, they only like us because we give them money and arms. Using that metric, who the hell wouldn't love us? We came in with money and ammunition, and they not only took it but demanded more. And Elitists like Haley just wrote check after check to the tune of almost $80 billion, sent shipment after shipment, with no congressional oversight, and no safety measures put in place to prevent accountability with the money.  

It doesn't take a genius to show how corrupt the government of Ukraine was and continues to be. Why should it be the policy of this Nation to support crooks and criminals? Ukraine offers no strategic value to the United States. They offer no resources we want/need, they do not contribute to our economy with exported goods or manufacturing. They can't be compared to Israel as the sole democracy in Eastern Europe. All they do is provide a buffer between Russia and the NATO states in Western Europe. The money we're spending on that war could be better used here domestically, where the lower and middle classes are struggling to keep their heads above water. 

As for the military assistance, I can speak to that directly. America is at war once again, but this time it's by proxy. We send ammo and other weapons to Ukraine for one reason and one reason alone: we are testing our weapon systems on the very targets they were designed to be used on. We send them to Ukraine so they can use them and tell us what worked and what didn't, and how well it performed or didn't. It is a classic combat weapons test without putting American lives on the line.  There is a massive downside to that scenario that nobody likes to talk about. It is draining our military's resources for combat and training.  America is not officially at war, so we technically cannot justify increasing our military production lines for weapons and ammunition. This creates a massive shortfall in our ability to not only train for a war but to respond to one as well.

When I first joined the Marines in 2000, my first year in the Corps was under Former President Bill Clinton's budget for that fiscal year. When we ran live fire ranges, we were limited in the amount of ammunition that we could use. Machine gunners were issued 100 rounds total to run a live fire exercise that normally required a machine gun to have at least 500 rounds of ammunition per gun. Our riflemen got issued half of a bandolier of ammunition, which was 60 rounds. Most of the time, we would run ranges and just shout "bang bang" because we ran out of rounds. Enter former President Bush and his budget starting in 2001, we saw more ammunition being issued until September 11th. That changed everything, and we ended up having more training ammunition than we could carry, literally. 

My point is when we send over the amount of ammunition and equipment that we do, we start to drain our reserves for training. That is the biggest threat to our national security, not giving it to Ukraine. Nikki Haley doesn't understand this; as a matter of fact, the majority of the Republican field doesn't either. But her words really struck a chord with me in a bad way. Her ideas of foreign policy come with a price, and it isn't financial. The price is the blood of our Warfighters when we get sent into another war or "police action" that we shouldn't be getting involved in. 

I fully support our military and the defense of this great nation. But I do not support being used as pawns and guinea pigs to test Haley's foreign policy theories. Our military is being decimated by low recruiting numbers, woke policies, and this never-ending war in Ukraine. And if we follow Haley's advice or most of the Republicans in the Presidential race so far, it will continue to decline. 

Nikki Haley, you're wrong.