At least the world’s worst and most dangerous actors stick together.
Almost immediately after Iran’s drones took off this weekend, Chinese propaganda organs endorsed Tehran’s narrative that it had no choice but to attack Israel.
The Iranian unmanned vehicles that were directed at Israeli targets have found more success in Ukraine, where the Russian military has used them to wreak havoc on civilian centers.
And China’s support of Moscow’s war effort, through companies providing electronic components and other key elements to the Russian military, has grown, U.S. officials have warned in recent weeks.
Yet Congress continues to be mired in dispute about whether to, and how to, pass security assistance for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. It’s an impasse that should end as soon as possible. With any luck, it will this week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he’s going to take a stab at getting this done. The latest idea involves splitting up funding for each country into a separate bill (with a fourth bill for various other national-security priorities, including forcing a TikTok divestiture).
Passing more security assistance for any one of these countries on the frontlines of authoritarian aggression should be a slam dunk. Their enemies hate us, our friends, and everything that the West stands for. Not only that, if we are seen to leave these countries swinging in the wind, it sends a clear message about American power and strength of purpose to the rest of the world, one that our adversaries, our allies, and those in between will act upon.
America should be attempting to deter our enemies, and, when that fails, degrading their capabilities or defeating them via our partners is the next best alternative.
The problem, as it has been for months, is the opposition of a small group of Republican lawmakers — and their crude efforts to hold Johnson’s speakership hostage. It’s why the $95 billion Senate-passed package has been languishing in the House. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie are already threatening to topple Johnson over his intention to use the tactic of splitting up the bill to move the aid.
Dividing up the package is a reasonable tactic. It allows opponents of any of these provisions to vote their conscience. And the proposal is notably deferential to the critics of Ukraine assistance.
As previous proposals did, it focuses on replenishing the stocks of weapons that the Pentagon has already shipped to Ukraine, and House leadership is touting the fact that about 60 percent of the funding goes into America’s defense-industrial base.
In a nod to some of the critics, meanwhile, the fourth bill incorporates former president Donald Trump’s preferred formulation for Ukraine assistance — a lend-lease program.
At the end of the day, in terms of the assistance to our three allies, it doesn’t matter how these provisions are advanced procedurally; whatever gets it done is welcome.
Johnson’s predecessor frequently warned that the world of today looks increasingly like that of the 1930s. If that’s a touch overwrought, October 7 and, especially, the missile attacks last weekend provide more support for the comparison. Congress needs to act accordingly.