U.S. Support for Ukraine: ‘No Blank Check’ Strategy Flawed

The Republican Party is now split between two camps: those, such as Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas), and presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who have called for giving Ukraine all the weapons it needs to repel the Russian invasion; and those, such as Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), as well as former president Donald Trump, who have called for cutting off arms shipments to Ukraine, thereby letting the Russians win.

This divide is intractable. Nevertheless, some Republican politicians and writers have attempted to finesse it with a compromise strategy. According to this faction, we should continue to support Ukraine with arms for a while, but set an upper limit to our support. There should be “no blank check.” Instead, once our limit is reached, they say, we should inform Ukraine that our patience is at an end, so it should take whatever terms Vladimir Putin is willing to give them.

About the Author

Robert Zubrin

Robert Zubrin is an aerospace engineer and the author of twelve books, most recently The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet.

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The Republican Party is now split between two camps: those, such as Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas), and presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who have called for giving Ukraine all the weapons it needs to repel the Russian invasion; and those, such as Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), as well as former president Donald Trump, who have called for cutting off arms shipments to Ukraine, thereby letting the Russians win.

This divide is intractable. Nevertheless, some Republican politicians and writers have attempted to finesse it with a compromise strategy. According to this faction, we should continue to support Ukraine with arms for a while, but set an upper limit to our support. There should be “no blank check.” Instead, once our limit is reached, they say, we should inform Ukraine that our patience is at an end, so it should take whatever terms Vladimir Putin is willing to give them.