The Reagan-esque revolution in Congress, with its bipartisan pro-Ukraine majority, is gaining momentum, and a dynamic and charismatic leader has come to the fore: Michael Thomas McCaul Sr., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
McCaul gave a master class on the House of Representatives on May 22, pointing out on a map how banning Ukraine from using U.S. weapons to attack Russian targets is an act of betrayal.
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This ban has always been unjust and spiteful towards America's heroic allies. McCaul made this clear, shouting at Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as he tried to answer a question: “It's now completely unthinkable!” He backed up his claim by saying, “We have Russian planes in Russian airspace over Belgorod, destroying entire city blocks in Kharkiv with glide bombs.”
Mr. Blinken didn’t even try to argue. During a joint news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kiev last week, Mr. Blinken ultimately agreed that it was entirely up to Ukraine how it would use the weapons it received to fight its sworn enemy.
But McCall didn't give up. [Jake] Will Mr. Sullivan and your administration continue to insist on this ban?,” he said, taking a direct swipe at his chief rival in Washington and Ukraine's number one enemy.
This bastard had the nerve to show up in Kiev when he had no ammunition (thanks to the US) and demand that Ukraine stop using drones to attack Russian oil refineries, which could hurt Grandpa Biden's reelection campaign.
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The move comes after Georgia adopted a Russian-style “foreign influence” law that critics say is intended to stifle dissent against the government.
The Ukrainians responded coldly to Sullivan, and McCaul's impressive performance on the House of Representatives on May 22 sent a clear message: the Ukrainians can attack not only with British Storm Shadows and French Scalps, but also with American ATACMS. No one in Washington now dares to oppose the idea.
In my last column, I wrote about the productive competition taking place between Washington and Paris for leadership of the free world. There is a similar, and equally productive, competition taking place within Washington for the same position. (The next day, the hapless Blinken was again criticized by Senator Cruz for not doing enough to support Israel.)
Putin is not the master of the universe
Joe Biden, isolated from the world by his inner circle, was the last person to believe Russian President Vladimir Putin and his nuclear threats. Sullivan never believed him. His job was to threaten Biden with the possibility of global nuclear war.
Perhaps more importantly, Putin himself no longer believes in his nuclear threats: French President Emmanuel Macron psychologically defeated him, and the three musketeers of House Republicans (McCaul, Rogers, and Turner) overcame a six-month Trump-imposed blockade of military aid to Ukraine, stripping him of his last hope of “victory.”
Putin's fairly calm and rational reaction to this (for him) tragic turn of events shows that he is just your average cynical St. Petersburg gangster. He is not the master of the universe. So he has turned his attention to the existential challenge before him: how to stay in power (and therefore survive) while his country is losing.
His first practical steps in this new reality seem perfectly reasonable: he wants to postpone defeat for as long as possible (the concept of a protracted war of attrition); he has pushed the military to take responsibility for exposing the rampant theft in the Ministry of Defense; he aims to neutralize potential activists within the military. But Russia is now full of NKVD agents intoxicated with immunity from prosecution and omnipotence, and local strongmen with gangster-ridden private military companies.
The collapse of Russian society has already begun and is impossible to stop. Ukraine, at the cost of enormous human losses, has prevented the magma of Russian ideology from spreading across the prosperous lands of Europe. Individuals and organizations that aspire to be the leader of the free world can and should immediately support Ukraine in its efforts to rid its sovereign territory of the harmful by-products of the complete collapse of the Russian state.
This mission may be accomplished tomorrow, in two weeks, or in two months. It all depends on the political will of the West. All the necessary physical elements are in place to carry out the mission: 200 NATO aircraft (French, British, Swedish) stationed at airfields in Romania, Poland, Finland and Ukraine can establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Threatened with the possibility of the immediate destruction of their military alliance in Crimea, the Russian military leadership will likely sign a memorandum of understanding providing for a systematic withdrawal of all Russian troops stationed outside Ukraine's borders, as was done in 1991.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
Andrei Piontkovsky
Dr. Andrei Piontkovsky is a Russian scientist, political commentator, and member of the International PEN Club, who was forced to leave Russia in 2016. For many years he has been a political commentator for the BBC World Service, Radio Liberty, and Voice of America. Dr. Piontkovsky has written several books about President Putin, including Another Look into Putin's Soul and Russian Identity (Hudson Institute). In 2017, Dr. Piontkovsky was awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize for “Courage in Journalism.” In 2019, he was named one of the top 100 people who have positively influenced Jewish life by the Algemeiner magazine. Dr. Andrei Piontkovsky, Wikipedia
