Afghanistan was an unmitigated disaster for the U.S., and despite Mr. Biden’s protestations that it was a success, his approval rating steadily declined in the aftermath, and has never recovered. To be clear, there were many other Biden failures (specifically his inflationary spending and his incredibly wrong-headed vaccine mandate) that have led to this result, but there is no doubt about the beginning: whatever honeymoon Mr. Biden had was over. Americans of course would like to have closed the Afghanistan episode, but not with failure. Not with America humiliated throughout the world. Not with sending a signal to the bad actors in the world that the U.S. did not have the will to sustain itself. It was not surprising that this was the beginning of Mr. Putin’s adventures in Ukraine, with Putin putting 70,000 troops on Ukraine’s border just a few months later. And of course, Mr. Biden’s foolish comment about how a “minor incursion” might not be an issue was just a green light to Putin.

Nevertheless, Mr. Biden’s performance in Ukraine is better than I expected, despite his performance prior increasing the likelihood of the conflict in the first place. I give him a C- overall; he has supported Ukraine enough that all the predictions of Russian quickly taking over Ukraine failed. My criticism is that he has failed to give Ukraine what is needs to win; Mr. Biden is happy to have Ukraine fight and push back, but he is fearful of Ukraine winning lest that lead to “escalation.” Mr. Biden is steadfastly afraid of conflicts ratcheting up, which leads hostile actors from Russia, to Iran, to the Houthis, to keep pressing against us. Every time Mr. Biden is asked for the type of weapons that could significantly change the equation, he refuses, lest we have escalation. But today Ukraine still stands, and for that, I give him a C-.

But in a major discouragement to me, a dominant subset of the Republican party is now refusing to supply additional ammunition to Ukraine–Iran, North Korea and China are more committed to Russia than the U.S. is to Ukraine. I am ashamed of the Republicans. Yes ashamed. I’ve outlined in several posts why Ukraine is in our national interest, and why we want Russia to fail. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but it also will enable us to reduce the potential conflict with Russia (and China!) in the future. There are some, like National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty, who basically argue, look Russia cares a lot about Ukraine, we don’t, so why are we there? I would be ashamed of that attitude, even if we thought that Russia would be satisfied with Ukraine alone. But Mr. Putin has been clear that he desires to reconstitute a whole series of vassal states. Moldova knows they are in Putin’s sights. There is a reason why NATO nations are now increasing their defense spending (and it is not primarily due to Trumpian pressure)–they now see how real the threat of the Russian bear is. There is a reason why Sweden abandoned its position of neutrality after 200 years.

Today’s conservative leftists don’t even offer the naivete of yesterday’s leftists, who at least believed that the Russians could be appeased and peace would come forth if we just weren’t hostile to them. Today’s conservative leftists proudly respond that they don’t care.* The naked aggression of Russia and its brutality is of no concern to them. There are plenty of Republicans that support traditional conservativism; if Speaker Johnson would let Ukraine aid come to a vote it would easily pass. But the conservative leftists won’t let it come. Shame Republicans. Shame.

*Edit Update. JD Vance refused to look Zelensky in the eye. Here he has absolutely no concern for a nation fighting for its existence, is someone who constantly criticizes Zelensky, and he doesn’t have the courage to meet him face to face and tell him why. Ohio deserves better.