Blaming to Intern Rather Than (a Chance) to Ended Trillion Dollar War Obviously Never Cool
One of the more blatant attempts to throw your own intern staff under the bus I’ve seen. If you wrong, you blame to your staff. It's heartbreaking. If they believe these things and think they matter, they should have anticipated the hostile reaction and owned their opinion.
Less than a day after it was issued, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has withdrawn a letter to President Biden that urged him to rethink his Ukraine strategy and negotiate directly with Russia to end the war. U.S. already spent 53 billion between January - October 2022 just for Ukraine (43 million population) from the U.S. taxpayers.
This number is a quarter of entire Indonesia's (275 million population) budget / APBN. More gargantuan, 2024 maybe U.S. defense budget reach 1 Trillion dollar —— if Ukraine-Russia too long to happen. If no major obstacles from tonight until November, or cancellation, the strongest leaders like Biden, Xi Jinping, Putin, Rishi Sunak, Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi, Olaf Scholz plus Zelensky (*Jokowi invite Zelensky as a special guest--- *Ukraine aren't G20 member) will be in same table in Bali next November. Indonesia is G20 Chairmanships this year.
But, a source familiar with the situation says Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal personally approved the letter’s release on Monday. Spokespeople for the Progressive Caucus and Jayapal’s office referred back to the group’s statement without denying Jayapal’s direct involvement. "Woke cancellation tactics” were being used to preclude discussion of alternatives to escalation. Realities. o a few progressives in congress signed a toothless letter politely asking Biden to please try some diplomacy with Russia someday if he wants to, the letter was slammed by warmongering pundits and social media Zelensky, so they blamed the letter on their intern, their staff? That's crazy. What if a lot intern abruptly vote GOP rather than Democrat in midterm election?
Until tonight, another Congressman who includes in "30 Progressive Caucus", Rohit Khanna, not yet deleted his tweet. He wrote ✍️:
(1)
I have voted for every defense package to Ukraine. Calling for exploring every diplomatic avenue to avoid nuclear war & seek a ceasefire while upholding Ukraine sovereignty is what many constituents seek. Our nation should never silence or shout down debate. The Admin does not.
(2)
General Joseph Dunford has articulated basically the same position. Please talk to him and other former military leaders. We must continue to support Ukraine while mitigating the serious risk of nuclear war, managing the conflict to not escalate, and seeking a just peace.
Since news already broke about “withdrawn”, in the minutes, several researcher from Quincy Institute tweeted “very angry” about how U.S. not trying Track Diplomacy to ended war (Russia - Ukraine). They were apparently the organizers of the effort. That’s not secret. A lot of members signed it and then nothing happened. Kind of odd in itself. They probably had some staffers at the Progressive Caucus who were on board with that. Perhaps even ex-colleagues if theirs. Somehow they came up with a way to push it public.
It’s clear that most of the reps, I think actually all of (Congressman - Congresswoman) the representatives who’ve spoken publicly have said they didn’t even know it was coming out. Pramila Jayapal is no fool. She wouldn’t knowingly blindside her colleagues like that. I suspect that someone got her to nominally sign off while she wasn’t really focused and then ran with it. Some outside groups and perhaps some staffers who were more invested in their own views than being straight with their employers pulled a fast one (though perhaps with a notional sign off) and figured once it was out the reps couldn’t walk away from it.
Quincy folks were pretty pumped when the letter came out and seemed to have their own write up pretty much right when the Washington Post (via Marcus M. Stanley) broke the story. And there’s more. More than a few people reacted to this like a whole lot of work went into it and people supposedly behind it just went and ruined everything. The Washington Post appears to confirm what seemed clear: that no one alerted House Democrats, including the people who signed the letter last summer, that it was being released.
Some are defending the interns or staffers.
Still via Quincy research-poll, the fact that most Americans support the US pursuing diplomatic negotiations to end the war, even if it means Ukraine has to make some compromises with Russia. Biden administration’s position is now “say no” for diplomatic track. U.S. “Assistance” military aid will be virtually unlimited and go on forever. Only Zelensky can decide when and how the war ends. Even though (according to Biden) the war could escalate into Armageddon.
The cancellation of the letter confirms that. The kerfuffle, and righteous indignation, over the progressive’s Ukraine letter exemplifies just how restricted opinion on this issue has become. Any opinion outside the conventional is viciously condemned and/or distorted. Not a healthy place to be. The letter really shouldn’t have been controversial. On second reading, it didn’t say much. It basically just asked Biden to pursue diplomacy in order to end the war. That is unlikely today but the concept itself shouldn’t be dismissed or purposely waved away with the A-word. The Ukrainians aren’t in the mood to negotiate. And the United States isn’t in the mood to press them. You can support some sort of ceasefire in theory, but we ought to be cognizant of the current realities on the ground (not to mention the political realities).
“Withdrawn” damaging their credibility (again) on foreign policy in a lasting way. Democrats didn't expect a backlash: if they had, Pramila Jayapal would have provided a heads up & talking points, an aide said. But criticism came fast--and often overlooked the letter's actual text, instead claiming it echoed Kevin McCarthy & Vladimir Putin. Progressives didn't push back. the letter meant breaking with Biden and Twitter called it anti-Ukraine, “Putin apologist”, Putin enabler”. People don’t seem to think that you can hold both positions of arming Ukraine and supporting their sovereignty & pushing for a diplomatic offramp. The challenge for progressives is to show their approach accounts for both those priorities. They could've used this moment to defy fringe activists who are calling Dems pro-war & pundits who say liberals are soft. Instead, progressives got a big news cycle that's hurt their credibility & influence for good.
Ukraine doesn’t have a strong incentive to negotiate if it keeps making progress in the field. Had Ukraine been unfree/undemocratic in February 2022 (before war started on Feb 24th)? In which case, you would have "consigned millions" to brutal occupation. Would you have left Kuwait unaided in August 2nd 1990 (same night I was born) before raided by Saddam Hussein's Iraq? Curious where this moralism goes. Any better proof of intellectual bankruptcy of warmongers attacking progressive caucus on Ukraine than that most of their criticism doesn’t address substance of letter at all but is limited to repeating same lazy reference to Munich Security Conference (MSC) we hear whenever someone mentions diplomacy? The last time Zelensky in outside Ukraine, was to attend MSC and, some very high ranking to meet, is VP Kamala Harris. Several IR analyst well-known that MSC even more strategic rather than G7 Summit or WEF in Davos.
Foreign policy is about dedicating finite resources to accomplishing defined geopolitical goals. But since the end of the Cold War, America doesn’t seem to ask or answer basic questions about its own war aims. DC has outsourced its most important foreign policy decisions to 'trojan' allies & partners that use the might of US power to advance their national interests & our establishment's private interests. Symbiotic relationship between officials of these countries and the liberal internationalist establishment. It's one thing when those officials present an existential view of war, tragedy is when the latter especially occludes the US interest.
The US knows that it has substantial influence over its client Zelensky. But the excuse itself — that the US must delegate its own security to a foreign government — should be unacceptable to every American.
The U.S. can and should support Ukraine but it can never delegate its security to a foreign head of state. If a reasonable peace deal is available, we should be instructing our client Mr. Zelensky to take that deal, not leaving it to his sole discretion. Zelensky may have his own domestic political reasons not to make a deal. Just 24 hours ago, Russian chief of general staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov spoke by phone with U.S. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley for the first time since May, according to the Russian MOD. 4 Days ago (Oct 21) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed "international security problems, notably the situation in Ukraine." It's worth to provide (at least) open door - back channel amid worst of war.
So his interests may not necessarily fully align with US interests. US foreign policy establishment believes that a peace deal to avert WWIII (their term) is likely available but they’re anxious Zelensky won’t take it for domestic political reasons. Yet it’s his sole decision to make. How does this serve US interests? Back about "withdrawn letter", Jayapal throws staff under the bus for the gentle suggestion of diplomacy to end a war, then pleads guilty to the greatest crime in Washington today: giving the appearance of agreeing with the other party. Letter suggesting diplomacy is "withdrawn". The hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch. What we’re doing is suggesting what we believe is the most effective way to end the war with the least cost. Zelensky, and now Biden and Congress(man & woman) failed to ended the war. If the U.S. failed to know ended the war, imagine of one day U.S. really declare a war with another full-resources: China.
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*for reader-subscriber, I’m sorry about redundancies of posting, technical problem, on note before “China issue”, about to helping elderly (French, English teacher). Donation still open because I write his bank account. (BJB (Bank Jabar Banten) 0064250949100 a.n. Masri Suryana --- PayPal paypal.me/masrisuryana47)