Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Congress on Wednesday in an emotional appeal to do more to help his country against the attack from the Russians.
In his speech, he asked the lawmakers to think of some of the worst attacks that have happened to our country and said that’s what is happening now in Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy also mentioned Mount Rushmore, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as he compared America's fight for freedom to that of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/602tA0Qbxr
— Scott Whitlock (@ScottJW) March 16, 2022
“We need you right now [to] remember Pearl Harbor, the terrible morning, Dec. 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember, remember September the 11th, a terrible day in 2001, when evil try to turn your cities, independent territories into battlefields, when innocent people were attacked,” Zelensky said. “Just like no one else expected it, you could not stop it. Our country experience the same every day right now.”
Zelensky went on to ask for the U.S. to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, and to continue providing additional aid to Ukraine as it closes out its third week fending off Russian invaders, which, according to the United Nations, has left nearly 700 civilians dead.
“This is a terror that Europe has not seen for 80 years, and we are asking for a reply, for an answer, from the whole world,” Zelensky said in his remarks to Congress. “Is that too much to ask for, a no-fly zone?” […]
“I’m almost 45 years old, today my age stopped when the hearts of 100 children stopped beating,” Zelensky said. “I’m addressing President Biden, you are the leader of the nation, your nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means being the leader of peace.”
Zelensky spoke of Martin Luther King, as well.
He also played a video showing the struggle happening in his country now.
This is the video that Ukrainian President Zelensky just played for Congress. pic.twitter.com/waTxPAiQBx
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 16, 2022
Now, Zelensky is doing all he can to appeal for the sake of his country and that should surprise no one. What’s often missing in this discussion of emotion is that yes, we have some obligation to help them based on the Budapest Memorandum that we signed in 1994 saying if they gave up their weapons that we would guarantee their security. Then folks like Barack Obama got them to give up a lot of their conventional weapons in addition to their nuclear weapons, in retrospect, complete folly when they’re on the border of Russia and then would have no defense. But Ukraine likely thought that guarantee meant something then.
So that’s to say that we do have an obligation to help if we want our agreements to mean anything in the world. Joe Biden has done a lot to hurt the U.S. in that regard around the world. But it’s an important thing to convey, particularly to other bad actors like China.
However, it doesn’t mean that we have to put our soldiers into war. The first obligation of lawmakers should always be to think of what is in the best interests of the United States.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the unconventional Donald Trump in office to come up with things that work, as he often did. We have Joe Biden who can’t even get out a coherent sentence and some lawmakers who don’t seem to understand all the possible pitfalls in these decisions. So while Zelensky is appealing to Biden, what he got was the complete confusion we saw last week over the question of the Polish MIGs being sent to Ukraine to help with a “no-fly zone.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was a go and then it was countermanded and the Pentagon said it was completely off the table. That was embarrassing for the U.S. and then didn’t provide anything anyway, leaving Zelensky twisting in the wind.
Now, Joe Biden is responding that they will be sending more weapon systems and drones.
U.S. will provide $800 million MORE in military aid to Ukraine: Biden
This includes:
• 800 anti-aircraft systems (including longer-range)
• 9,000 anti-armor systems
• 7,000 small arms (machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers)
• 20 million rounds of ammo
• Drones— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) March 16, 2022
But he’s not mentioning any planes. If he were smart at all, none of this would be announced like this if the point is not to exacerbate the situation and highlight everything to Russia. But his response hasn’t been smart so far.
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