Brooks and Capehart on U.S. aid for Ukraine wavering on partisan battle lines

David Brooks:

It seemed like it was universally accepted that defending Ukraine was in our national interest. Even today, 74 percent of Americans think defending Ukraine is in our national interest.

And yet the president, or the ex-president, said no, and the speaker apparently follows him. And, to be fair, in retrospect, we should have been clearer that the Russian strategy in war is to go on forever and ever, and they’re willing to sacrifice casualties that would destroy most other nations. They did it in the Napoleonic Wars. They did it in World War II. They’re doing it in Ukraine.

And we should have been clearer that time wasn’t on our side. And the Biden administration was undoubtedly too slow to get the weapons systems. They gave them enough not to lose, but not enough to win. But it’s a small, rump isolationist majority, the J.D. Vances of the world, that threaten to really send the world into turmoil.

And they say, oh, no, we need to focus on China and Asia. Well, talk to the Chinese. Talk to the Taiwanese. What are they worried about? They’re worried about Ukraine losing. And so this is the doorstep to chaos, and a large part of the Republican Party doesn’t care.