OPINION: Accept Ukraine Funds for Border Enforcement Deal

Senate Republicans have offered Democrats a deal.

They will approve $60 billion to pay for arms for Ukraine in exchange for funds and enforcement reforms to strengthen US border security.

Democrats need to grab that deal straight away.

To be clear, I think it is outrageous that the Republicans have put a price on their support for the defense of the free world. But still, they are offering that support in exchange for that price.

This being the case, that price needs to be paid.

The alternative is total catastrophe.

If the US cuts off its support for Ukraine, that country will fall to Russian invasion.

In that case, Russia will be greatly strengthened both materially and technically, and its armed forces will be advanced to the borders of NATO allies Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Furthermore, Russia’s strategic weakness along its southwest border, which constrains its ability to invade the Baltic states, will be cured.

With Ukraine’s army deleted from the West’s order of battle, the US would either have to send 500,000 of its own troops to Europe to defend the continent or – more likely, given the rise of the Putin Republicans – watch NATO collapse, as first the Germans, then others, cut their deals with the continent’s new Russia-China axis overlords.

With the US discredited as an ally, Taiwan will have no choice but to capitulate to China, while Japan and South Korea will be forced to initiate crash programs to develop their own nuclear arsenals. This will turn Asia into a tinder box for Armageddon.

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Even if global war is somehow avoided, the new world order will be anything but beneficial for the United States, as America’s enemies depress our economy by dictating the rules and outcomes for international business.

But America won’t have to wait that long to feel the outcome of a Ukrainian debacle. When Biden chose defeat in Afghanistan, handing over 40 million Afghans to the Taliban, he lost much of his political clout. If he chooses defeat in Ukraine, he will be utterly crushed by Trump in the fall. That could potentially mean the end of our constitutional Republic.

So there is no choice. The Dems must either accept the deal or watch the world go up in flames.

As for the immigration and border enforcement changes the GOP is demanding, let them have them. If they turn out for the good, take credit for the compromise. If they turn out for the bad, let them take the blame. But for the love of God, dear Democrats, take the deal.

But President Biden must do more than just take the deal. He must decide to fight the war to win. His policy of slow-rolling arms delivery to Ukraine needs to be abandoned, as it is both morally depraved and imbecilic. It is morally depraved because it has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. It is imbecilic because it risks losing the war. Its principal author, NSC Director Jake Sullivan, needs to be dismissed, and replaced by a competent advisor committed to victory.

Because victory is both necessary and possible. Ukraine has mobilized a large and brave army. What it needs to prevail is air power. The United States has 2,000 F-16s that we no longer use for any other purpose but target practice. Armed with long-range air-to-ground stand-off weapons and supplemented by a readily available arsenal of long-range ground-to-ground missiles and drones, these could cut off the supplies reaching the Russian front from behind.

Under those conditions, the Russians’ extensive frontline defenses will need to be abandoned, and like sentry boxes without sentries, readily be overrun by a victorious Ukrainian advance.

There may be some in the Democratic Party ranks who see a political opportunity in allowing Ukraine to collapse and then blaming the catastrophe on the GOP. This is unacceptable. In 1940 FDR did not allow Britain to fall so he could blame the disaster on the America Firsters.

\No, within a month of the Dunkirk evacuation he sent the British 1 million rifles, 7,000 field artillery guns, and 100 million rounds of ammunition. That is how a president needs to behave in a crisis. Biden is president. The buck stops with him.

Again, I fully understand that the GOP position is totally asinine. But consider the following thought problem:

Little Sally is drowning in the ocean. The only other people present are her grandfather, who can’t swim, and a lifeguard.

Grandpa: Save her!

Lifeguard: I will only do it if you pay me $100.

Grandpa: No way!

Little Sally is Ukraine, the lifeguard is the GOP. Biden is in Grandpa’s position. Should he let Sally drown rather than submit to the lifeguard’s extortion?

Because that is the moral equivalent of the current political situation. Giving the GOP their way on immigration regulations is an insignificant concession compared to the consequences of a Ukrainian defeat. Regulation changes can always be undone later. A Russian conquest of Ukraine cannot.

Even if all the Democrats’ Progressive wing cares about is the immigration issue, they should consider this: In the wake of an administration debacle over Ukraine, Trump will almost certainly take the White House. The immigration policies he will enact will be far more draconian than anything currently being proposed by the Senate Republicans.

Furthermore, should Putin conquer Ukraine, he will inflict massacres on that country not only to crush any potential resistance but to intentionally flood Europe with millions of refugees to stoke the fortunes of ultra-right wing parties allied to the Kremlin.

So President Biden, you now have a choice. Herd the Democratic cats in Congress to accept the deal and achieve a victory that will secure Europe and restore global deterrence, or accept a catastrophic defeat, leading to the collapse of the Western-led world order, global chaos, and quite possibly, the end of the American republic.

Take the deal, Joe. Take it and run with it.

Robert Zubrin is an American aerospace engineer. His next book, The New World on Mars: What Can We Create on the Red Planet will be published in February 2024 by Diversion Books.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.