'As long as it takes' stance on Ukraine is expiring in the US: FT

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Financial Times
23 Feb 2023 15:44

This report by the Financial Times says that Biden's 'as long as it takes' motto regarding Washington's support to Ukraine has some questions to answer, and soon.

US President Joe Biden embraces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev, during the former's visit to Ukraine on Monday, February 20, 2023. (Reuters)

Between the secret flight to Kiev, and his "impassioned speech before Warsow castle", not to mention the image of a rebuilt Poland, all included one message, according to the Financial Times : this US president will stand with democratic Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Joe Biden's trip to Ukraine earlier this week solidified his support to Ukraine, militarily and financially, as the president announced a new aid package to the European country and announced that Washington will stand by its ally as long as it takes.

During his speech at the Warsaw Royal castle, a stop he made following his Ukraine surprise visit, Biden stated that the US and the collective West "will not waiver" in their support of Ukraine.

"NATO will not be divided, and we will not tire," he added then.

However, this does not address the current crucial question.

According to the Financial Times report published on Thursday, the real question for Kiev is: will America, as citizens and establishments and especially Republicans, provide Ukraine with unwavering and unlimited support?

Consensus on Ukraine has begun to decline back in the United States, and Biden is aware of that.

The once united public and bipartisan political position of arming and financing Ukraine and the war has witnessed a decline recently as the war sees no end in sight.

The Warsaw speech failed to disclose Washington's understanding of what Russia's failure would look like, to what extent the US will support Ukraine and what America's vision is exactly regarding the conclusion of the war.

“Biden has yet to define a clear goal for our policy and he has yet to describe clearly to Americans in plain language, why we should be making the effort,” former US ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst said.

The vital questions must not remain unanswered and are likely to become increasingly critical as public unified support to Ukraine frays.

Polls show people believe US supplying too much

Vows of open-ended support are beginning to strike concern in American citizens, the report said. Growing discontent with NATO's insistence on flooding Ukraine with American cash and weaponry appears to be spreading beyond the US right.

According to a new Pew Research study, the number of Americans who believe the US is contributing "too much" to Ukraine has nearly quadrupled in less than a year, as they believe that the US is supplying “too much” cash and weapons to Ukraine now, outnumbering those who believe it is providing “too little,” per the results.

During the previous ten months, the percentage of Americans that have grown disillusioned with Washington's latest military gambit has risen from 7% to 26%.

The significant increase was undoubtedly witnessed among Republicans. Since March 2022, the proportion of Republicans who believe the US is doing "too much" to back Ukraine has more than quadrupled, rising from 9% to 40%. Just 24% of those surveyed responded that what the US government is giving is “about right,” while only 17% said it should send more.

Nonetheless, Democrats are now three times as inclined to agree than they were in March, with the proportion saying the Biden administration is giving Kiev "too much" increasing from 5% to 15%.

Republicans bashing black check policy

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one potential US presidential candidate for 2024 slammed on Monday the incumbent President's trip to Ukraine. Gov. He expressed severe reservations about Joe Biden's Ukrainian policy on "Fox & Friends," including a potential "proxy conflict" with Beijing and an open-ended war with no apparent strategic aim.

“Well, they [Biden's administration] have effectively a blank check policy with no clear strategic objective identified and these things can escalate," the governor said. "I think it would behoove them to identify what is the strategic objective that they’re trying to achieve. But just saying it’s an open-ended blank check, that is not acceptable,” he added.

On his part, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, also voiced his concern over Washington's questionable policy towards the war in Ukraine and the period to which it [Washington] can sustain its assistance to the Eastern European country.

As Congress remains in favor of the current policy with regard to maintaining the flow of support for Ukraine, the following phase will require further effort to keep the status-quo, the Financial Times explained.

However, dissatisfaction with the war in Ukraine and its impact on global and US economy is no longer limited to the right, and support for the continuation of the open-ended supply is not limited to the left. Americans are now significantly more likely to oppose further measures by Washington to flood Ukraine with weaponry.

For example, Republican Michael McCaul, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress, is a Ukraine hawk that considers that the US is lacking on speed to provide Kiev with more offensive weapons.

How would an end to the war look like?

The entangled coalitions on the matter might force Biden to be more transparent on a critical matter: what would be a possible end to the war and what would it look like.

Washington has so far not addressed this matter for a "good reason", FT claimed.

According to the report, Biden's administration cannot put itself in a position of imposing terms on Ukraine while the latter is in the middle of a bloody war. With time, however, the difference in views between the US and Ukraine will become more obvious.

While Kiev considers victory to be the restoration of lands annexed by Russia, American officials remain not committed to that goal, rather they consider that neither Moscow nor Ukraine can achieve their aims this year.

They [US officials] view that a victory by Ukraine would take years.

That mentioned, the report stresses that Biden's “as long as it takes” position will require more clarity as division grows in the US.

“The messaging and broader aims are still a bit muddled,” said Rachel Rizzo, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center (ACE). “Supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary, as the administration says, is not the same as giving them all the weaponry they’re asking for or dealing Russia a decisive blow.”

“Those are important distinctions to make,” she added.