🇺🇸 Long Range

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February 03, 2023

The Flag

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Good morning, and happy Friday! During World War II, Marie Osmond's father, George Osmond, served in the army and met his future wife Olive at a military depot, where she worked as a secretary. End your week with this awesome story.

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📉 Wednesday, February 1: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 45, Disapprove 54 (Fox News)

📉 Wednesday, February 1: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 44, Disapprove 49 (Monmouth)

📉 Wednesday, February 2: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 42, Disapprove 55 (Rasmussen Reports)

📉 Wednesday, February 1: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 44, Disapprove 52 (Economist/YouGov)

TRENDING

Right: Tune Out Any 'Journalist' Relying on Russia Hoaxer Margot Cleveland, Federalist

Right: Fetterman & the Stolen Valor of the Working Class Richard Shinder, American Spectator

Left: Barr Blows Up Durham Probe To Save Trump Heather Parton, Salon

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QUICK CLICKS

Omar Off Committee, Governor Backs Gas Stoves, What's Next for Debt?

US: Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over northern US (NBC News)

US: House votes to remove Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee (Axios)

US: John Kerry under investigation over secret negotiations with China (Fox News)

Weather: Historic deep freeze to hit US northeast as ice storm subsides in south (BBC)

US: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rips calls for gas stove bans, proposes tax exemption (NY Post)

US: US releases Guantanamo prisoner once tortured at CIA sites (AP)

US: One dead, officer critically hurt in shooting at Memphis library (WKRN)

US: Here's how the debt crisis could end — if Biden-McCarthy talks fail (POLITICO)

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Long Range

An additional $2 billion in military aid will soon reportedly be sent to Ukraine by the US, as Western nations continue to support the country in its war with Russia. What’s being sent is said to include longer-range weapons for the first time, along with other munitions.

From The Flag: A portion of the package is funded by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This allows the federal government to purchase directly from the arms industry rather than depleting our military’s stock. The debate continues over how much the US should be willing to spend in support of a foreign war. Here’s more from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

The US Must Balance the Geopolitical and Military Technology Risks

  • The US should be willing to keep sending aid – including fighter jets – because helping democracies defend themselves is in our best interests.

  • It’s true that Ukraine has struggled with corruption, but that’s a secondary concern to Russia’s military (and nuclear) capabilities.

  • America runs the risk of its military technology falling into the wrong hands when it sends weapons to a foreign battlefield.

“What Does Ukraine Need to Win?” Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal: “President Biden is saying the U.S. won’t supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, but anyone following the war in the past year knows what that means: Ask again later. The Biden Team hems and haws on every new weapon request for Ukraine before it later comes around, and let’s hope the President changes again and offers more military support that helps Ukraine immediately on the battlefield and after the war ends. … The Ukrainians have pilots who are ready to train on Western aircraft, and they’d be flying F-16s now if the Biden Administration had set up an operation a year ago. … US support for Ukraine isn’t an exercise in nation-building, or willy-nilly intervention. Americans aren’t fighting and dying. Aid for Kyiv is in the Reagan Doctrine tradition of helping others fighting and dying for their own freedom.”

“Why Even A Corrupt Ukraine Is Worth Supporting Against Russian Aggression” Chuck DeVore, The Federalist: “Critics of America’s support for Ukraine often cite the latter’s corruption as a rationale not to provide assistance. Ukraine has struggled under the burden of corruption, but that does not override the fact that a Russian victory over Ukraine would be harmful to US national security interests… Russia is one of a handful of hostile nation-states with nuclear weapons (or advanced nuclear programs) that pose a threat to America and its allies… Americans need to ask themselves: Is it worth it to severely degrade the threat from the Russian military, recover some of the credibility lost by the Biden administration in its embarrassing pullout from Afghanistan, and bolster deterrence against China; and is the expected level of corruption more or less than was experienced in the Lend-Lease effort that was so vital in vanquishing the threat from the Axis powers in WW2?”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Weapons-Stealing Can Win Wars Steve Feinstein, American Thinker

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Don’t Blink: Now Is the Time to Steel Our Resolve

  • If the West falters in its support of Ukraine now, allowing the war to settle into a stalemate, history will be a harsh judge.

  • It is incumbent on the US and its democratic allies to provide Ukraine with even more firepower – in the form of fighter jets.

  • By gradually developing its democracy and providing a regional foil to Russia’s hegemony, Ukraine is repaying our investment.

“Give Ukraine Everything They Want to End the War Now” Michael McFaul, Foreign Affairs: “If Russia starts winning on the battlefield, or even fights to a stalemate, few will remember US President Joe Biden’s remarkable leadership in galvanizing the world to assist Ukraine in 2022. This is why Western leaders need to shift… incrementally expanding military and economic assistance is likely to only prolong the war indefinitely. Instead, in 2023, the United States, NATO, and the democratic world more broadly should aim to support a breakthrough. … It needs to be provided swiftly, so that Ukraine can win decisively on the battlefield this year. Without greater and immediate support, the war will settle into a stalemate, which is only to Putin’s advantage. In the end, the West will be judged by what happened during the last year of the war, not by what happened in the first.”

“Ukraine Desperately Needed Tanks. Now It Needs Planes.” Jonathan Yerushalmy, The Guardian: “Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, according to the country’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov. … Referring to Russia’s general mobilization of 300,000 conscripted soldiers in September last year, he claimed that numbers at the border suggest the true size could be closer to 500,000. … Ukraine’s defense minister was in France to meet President Emmanuel Macron and secure the purchase of air defense radars. He was also lobbying European nations to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine… Intelligence experts and analysts have long suggested that a renewed offensive would probably be launched by Russia before spring. Much of the fighting in the country’s east has been in a state of deadlock for many weeks, with both sides reportedly enduring huge casualties as they become bedded in.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Ukraine Is Already Paying Us Back Daniel Twining, Politico Opinion

FLAG THIS

More Americans Object To What We’re Sending, Particularly Republicans

Polling shows an increasing number of Americans believe the US government is providing Ukraine with too much support. Just over a quarter of respondents feel this way, while 3 in 10 say the US is giving the right amount.

Since last September, the number of people who say we have sent too much is up 6%, while on an annual basis it’s increased 19%.

The shift is most drastic among Republicans. While just 9% felt the US was sending too much right after the war began, now 40% say it's too much. Conversely, 40% of Democrats describe what the US is sending as “about right” (Pew Research).

How do you classify the military support we’ve sent Ukraine?

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FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

First Hispanic AG, Carrying a Celebrity's Baby, Oil Thieves

Gonzales and his wife Rebecca, with George W. Bush and Laura Bush at the Prairie Chapel Ranch on August 26, 2007, the day that Gonzales's resignation was accepted.

On February 3, 2005, Alberto Gonzales wins Senate confirmation as the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general, despite protests over his record on torture.

New Lines Magazine: The Oil Thieves of Nigeria

Today I Learned that Abraham Lincoln – a fearsome wrestler as a young man – once wrestled the county champion outside the store where he worked as the whole town looked on. When his opponent began cheating, Lincoln picked the man up and flung him to the ground, knocking him out and starting an all-out brawl.

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