Gordon, The war in Ukraine is not about Russia or Ukraine. My objection to writing a blank check to the Ukrainians is based on 2 important things. 1. When we are 36 trillion dollars in the hole, we should not be thinking about fighting another war unless we are directly attacked. Instead, we should be thinking about fixing our failing infrastructure and our schools. Our veterans are losing their homes, and the suicide rates are rising at an alarming rate while the inflation is out of control. Our cities are becoming desolate. I am not excited about sending another dime of our taxpayers money to take care of someone else's problem at the expense of our own future. During the campaign. I was the only candidate among both republican and democratic candidates who said I would have not only voted against Speaker Johnson's 100 billion dollar aid to Ukraine, I would have put together a group of sensible members from both parties to block that bill. It was not politically the right thing to say at that time, running for the Republican nomination, but I never hesitated to say it publicly. 2. The war is about our broken promises to the world and about Russia. America stood tall on the world stage and promised that we would not move NATO an inch eastward if the Russians allowed the unification of Germany. We have not only broken that promise a dozen times - every time a former Soviet country changed its mind and wanted to join the alliance but we have ended up paying for their defense while they get to spend their money on all socialist programs and on their Black Sea resort vacations. Now, please tell me, do you still want to keep writing blank checks to Zelenskyy so he can continue this endless war partly provoked by the treatment of ethnic Russians in Crimea by Ukraine? Always please remember Zelenskyy is not a saint either. He has plenty of skeletons in his closet, too. We shouldn't allow our partisan urges to cloud our reasoning. On another note, Russians are not our enemies. Let me please qualify that with a few valid reasons. A. During the Clinton Administration, the Russians even asked for a possibility of joining NATO because the real enemy is China - a real superpower we helped create with our dollars, out of our stupid foreign policies of the 70s and 80s. We took a third-world country that was struggling to feed its people in the 60s and 70s and made it into a superpower that challenges us everywhere today. We gave them the rocket technology and gave the money to build them to target our cities. B. At the end of the day, Russians are part of the Western civilization and historically an integral part of the Christendom. Except for their brief, misguided 70-year experiment with communism - which is now dead and gone- Russians have more in common with us than the Saudis, the Indians, or the Chinese. The Russian orthodox church was founded by those who survived the Ottoman take over of Constantinople - the very mother church of the Holy Roman Eastern Empire. Those who managed to flee ended up in St. Petersburg, where they founded the Orthodox Church. They aspire to be our partners. It 8s time we reevaluate our priorities. C. Western Europe would freeze to death except for the Russian oil and gas, which they have not used as a weapon against the very people wanting to continue this fight for the last 3 winters. That, I think, is a mature approach. Now, please tell me, should we go ahead and arm the Ukrainians to help nuke the Russians? There comes a time in every century or so when we have to recalibrate our compass and policies based on global political transformations. If we don't recognize it and change our outlook accordingly, we will become the Rhinos and irrelevant. I am glad this Administration recognizes it. That is why I think what President Trump is doing is better than the failed policies of the past 3 years. Thank you

what a lot of bollocks

Trump owes Zelensky AND America one. When did the GOP become little more than putin appeasing RINOs. Nothing Republican or Reagan-like in that Celebrity Fan Cult.