A historic vote is set to take place in the House of Representatives today on additional military aid to Ukraine in their fight against Russian aggression. This single vote is underappreciated by the general public for its significance. As a taxpayer and citizen of the United States my hope is that Congress votes for the additional aid to Ukraine.
There are though good reasons why the United States should not prioritize military aid for Ukraine. One is the need for the United States to secure our own southern border and another is the need for Europe to prioritize their own defense instead of relying upon the taxpayers of the United States.
Our southern border is a critical national security issue, not because millions of people want to cross that border to realize the American Dream but because of what else is streaming across that border, one of those being huge amounts of deadly fentanyl.
Immigrants to our country in and of themselves are not a burden to us. The United States can assimilate and accommodate many more people than we already have within our borders. The vast majority of immigrants, now as in the past two hundred plus years, are an asset to our country. They add to economic growth and the rich vibrancy of our culture. They should be vetted, and those who follow the rules and meet the criteria should be welcomed.
But fentanyl is a largely underreported and devastatingly negative influence in our country. More people in the United States die of fentanyl overdoses, roughly 70,000 a year, than Ukrainians who have died since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of 2022, roughly 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and civilians killed. The vast majority of the fentanyl which is killing huge numbers of our citizens is made from chemicals shipped to and then made into fentanyl in Mexico, and then smuggled across our southern border.
This is not just some right-wing conspiracy theory promoted by the likes of Tucker Carlson or Majorie Taylor Greene. The following is a quote from a speech by President Biden’s own Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen from December of 2023:
Today, the majority of precursor chemicals for illicitly manufactured fentanyl come from China and are synthesized into fentanyl in Mexico. Fentanyl is then smuggled across the border into the United States. Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen on New Treasury Actions to Counter Illicit Financing Tied to Fentanyl in Mexico City, Mexico | U.S. Department of the Treasury
If this is not a national security crisis for the people of the United States then the phrase has no meaning. Securing our southern border deserves our resources and our attention.
The other good reason why the United States should be hesitant to foot the bill for Ukrainian aid is Europe should do more to pay for their own security. The taxpayers of the United States should not be expected to foot the bill for the security of Europeans when many Europeans who benefit more from that aid are unwilling to pay themselves. Germany has the third largest economy in the world. Few countries not directly bordering Russia have a larger stake in stopping Russian military aggression. It is ironic that the countries that were the victims of both German and Russian collusion and aggression during World War II, thus Polland, Slovakia, and the Baltics states, are doing more based on the percentage of their GDP today than Germany. Germany can and should do more.
But Russia and their ally China are the greatest security threats to America and our way of life. Their leaders don’t have to make speeches announcing their policies of undermining the United States for us understand their intentions.
Everyone should realize that the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party are well aware that the chemicals they send to Mexico is made into Fentanyl and is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. In China’s sophisticated police state where electronic surveillance is a way of life, the CCP knows very well what they’re doing, and welcome it.
Likewise, everyone should realize that Hamas did not attack Israel in a vacuum. Hamas’s greatest benefactor and protector is Iran, the same Iran that is supplying Russia with drones to attack Ukrainian civilians is now attacking Israel with those drones. Again, we don’t need for President Putin to make a speech to know that Russia welcomed with glee Hamas’s attack upon Israel and the conflict and contention that it has reignited. Putin does not care one wit about the harm those attacks have caused to the people of Israel, or even less about the very predictable suffering inflicted upon the Palestinians in reaction to Hamas’s attack. Division, deceit, and chaos is what the Russians have relied upon as a tool of their foreign for centuries. Russia knew very well the discord and division a conflagration in the Middle East would cause in America, and Russia welcomed it.
With all of that said and acknowledging that it is incomprehensible that our government does not do more to secure our southern border, the cost to the citizens of the United States of a Russian victory in Ukraine far outweighs the relatively minor cost of supplying Ukraine with the weapons they need to defeat Russia. The United States has literally spent trillions throughout the decades to develop and acquire the weapons necessary to counter Russian aggression in Europe and throughout the world. To supply those weapons now to Ukraine to do precisely what they were developed and acquired to do is in our nation’s best interests. The American taxpayer will never get a better return on our investment in our weapons of war than we will now by supplying them to the brave and resilient Ukrainian soldiers to destroy Russian weapons of war.
What ever is the vote for supplying more aid to Ukraine, I am confident the Ukrainians will continue to fight, and Russia will continue to try to undermine our democracy. But by pushing back upon and weakening Russia we are weakening Russia and China, and even Iran, and strengthening the free world. By supplying Ukraine with additional military aid, we are acting in our own best interests.