Cotton: If the US Blinks ‘Every Time Vladimir Putin Says Boo, He’s Not Going to Stop in Ukraine’
(CNSNews.com) – Republican senators urged President Biden on Thursday to reverse course on providing fighter jets to Ukraine, with some accusing the administration and Pentagon of making misleading claims about the warplanes’ effectiveness and the risks posed by facilitating the transfer.
More than 40 senators signed a letter to Biden initiated by Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) calling for a policy shift.
“While we commend the lethal aid that your administration has sent to Ukraine thus far, we strongly disagree with your decision to delay and deny Poland the option to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine,” they wrote.
“Your administration champions the $1 billion in defense articles provided to Ukraine over the past 13 months and has definitively stated that there are no restrictions in your current suite of authorities to adequately respond to Russia’s lawless and bloody invasion of Ukraine. We implore you to direct your Department of Defense to facilitate the transfer of aircraft, air defense systems, and other capabilities by and through our NATO partners immediately.”
The appeal follows the Pentagon’s emphatic rejection Tuesday of an offer by Poland to send its MiG-29 fighter jets – which Ukraine is eager to use to help defend its airspace – to a U.S. airbase in Germany, from where they could be transferred to Ukraine’s armed forces.
While the administration had voiced no opposition to Poland providing the planes directly to Ukraine – Secretary of State Antony Blinken just two days earlier said the U.S. has given “a green light” for such an arrangement – once Poland suggested that this be done via the Ramstein Air Base, the stance changed.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in Tuesday’s statement that the prospect of fighter jets “departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance.”
Elaborating the following day, Kirby told a briefing that the Pentagon does not believe adding aircraft to the Ukraine Air Force’s inventory would significantly improve its effectiveness vis-à-vis the Russians.
And, he said, “the intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MIG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory, and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO.”
“We believe that provision of additional fighter aircraft provides little increased capabilities at high risk.”
‘Halting and hesitating half-measures’
Some GOP senators on Thursday highlighted what they saw as inconsistencies.
“On March 6, four days ago, when we green lighted the transfer of MiGs by Poland to the Ukrainian Air Force, nobody suggested then they don’t need them, right?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said at a press briefing.
“Now all of a sudden, if we do what we were allowing Poland to do, with our fingerprints on it, we’re creating World War III.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said the Pentagon was contradicting itself, arguing on the one hand that Ukraine doesn’t really need the aircraft and that the gains they provide would be very small, “but on the other hand, Vladimir Putin is going to view this as such an escalation that he might strike the United States or strike NATO.”
“The Pentagon is making a ridiculous assertion to justify the president’s halting and hesitating half-measures.”
Cotton said Biden “needs to decide what the United States and NATO are going to do to put Vladimir Putin on the back foot. Because if we continue, if we continue to blink every time Vladimir Putin says ‘boo’ he’s not going to stop in Ukraine, he’s not going to stop in Europe.”
Asked at a briefing Thursday about the assertion that providing the MiGs to Ukraine would entail high risk, White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied, “I would say what our assessment is based on is how to prevent a world war here.”
Psaki argued that there was an “escalation ladder” – that there was “a difference between an anti-tank weapon, a shoulder-fired missile, an aircraft, and a fighter jet that could cross a border and actually conduct operations on Russian soil.”
“I don’t think we have held back in any capacity in providing assistance, having the backs of the Ukrainians,” she said. “But we are not going to do things that we think are not in the interests of the United States or our NATO allies.”
At a press availability with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Vice President Kamala Harris did not directly answer a question on Poland’s MiG offer, pointing instead to other security assistance being provided to Ukraine, including “anti-tank and anti defense systems.”
In response to another question, Duda said Poland’s proposal “to put those jets at the disposal of NATO was based on a desire to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia, but at the same time not act unilaterally but as a responsible member of the NATO alliance.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said Poland “wanted NATO as a whole to make a common decision so that Poland remains a credible member of NATO, not a country which decides on its own on important issues which impact the security of NATO as a whole.”
https://www.cnsnews.com/index.php/article/international/patrick-goodenough/cotton-if-us-blinks-every-time-vladimir-putin-says-boo-hes
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