Bipartisan Ukraine aid vote neither victory for Ukraine nor for functional American governance

 Bipartisan Ukraine aid vote neither victory for Ukraine nor for functional American governance

We in the peace movement knew the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board would be quick to celebrate the House Republican capitulation to Democrats in squandering another $61 billion on the lost war in Ukraine. For its entire 26 months, the Ukraine war has had complete support by the Trib for endless weapons for endless war, instead of negotiations that could have resolved it in its first month.

But to frame it as a harbinger of functional bipartisan governance is both surprising and preposterous. It simply represents Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson caving to the US war party which always gets its endless billions for war through bipartisan support. The six months of Republican delay were a welcome break from war bipartisanship when Republicans actually aligned themselves with the electorate which favors peace, not endless war in Ukraine.

The Trib correctly noted that a majority of House Republicans voted against this weapons boondoggle which will prolong the war to kill off the remaining Ukrainian soldiers, and further descend Ukraine into an ungovernable, failed state.

That 112 vote Republican majority, along with a majority of the American people, have infinitely more sense than the Biden administration and its partner in endless war, Speaker Mike Johnson.

The $61 billion cannot replace the hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainian soldiers. It cannot prevent Ukraine eventually suing for peace, losing a quarter of its territory when negotiations early on would have kept it whole.

What will the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board write when that occurs? We in the peace community would like to know.