As usual, the Biden administration dithers while the world burns.
Is it any surprise that officials who didn’t see inflation coming, who couldn’t handle a baby-formula shortage and kept pushing legislation although members of their own party said no, can’t properly arm Ukraine, despite a bipartisan push to do so?
“For weeks, [Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky] and other top Ukrainian officials have been asking the United States to provide multiple launch rocket systems, or MLRS, which would give Kyiv the ability to strike targets from much farther away and a better chance of resisting the assault in the east,” reports The Washington Post.
But some inside the White House were worried the MLRS could be used to hit targets inside Russia, escalating the response. But “the White House is now comfortable managing that risk by withholding the longest range ammunition for the system, a senior US official told The Post.”
That took WEEKS?!
It’s idiotic that the administration is having meeting after meeting about limiting the range of missiles as Ukrainian soldiers fight for their lives. It’s even more baffling considering that Russian President Vladimir Putin shows none such concerns about “escalation.” Does wiping out a hospital containing pregnant women not count as escalation? How about leveling Mariupol to the ground? Trying to assassinate Zelensky?
The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said Ukrainian forces needed the weaponry “yesterday.” Slogging through red tape and the Biden administration’s own waffling not only makes things worse for Ukraine, it will cost everyone more down the road.
Putin shows no compunction about the suffering he’s inflicting. The least President Biden can do for Ukraine is supply them with the weapons they need — now.