Ukraine?

You remember that , right?

That was the major crisis just 3 crises ago…….or to put in simpler terms that was the crisis just 4 short months ago.

There is still news coming out of the region but not on nightly news…..

First of all One American that was captured by the Russians has made a statement….

One of two US fighters captured in Ukraine says he’s “doing fine” despite facing possible execution. Alexander Drueke, a US Army veteran from Alabama, spoke with his mother in a Friday phone call shared with the Washington Post by his family. It was their fifth call since Drueke and fellow Alabama resident Andy Tai Huynh were captured by Russian forces near Kharkiv on June 9. “I’m doing fine. No real danger currently,” Drueke—held in the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine—told his mother, Lois. He said he had seen Huynh during a meeting with a lawyer on Thursday—Huynh has yet to speak with family or US officials, according to his fiancee—but otherwise remained in solitary confinement.

Drueke described the challenges of living in a confined space, such as “finding little things to think about, just, you know, [to] fill in the boredom,” in the phone call that lasted over four minutes. His mother has described previous calls as scripted, noting her son was “clearly reciting some things he had been made to practice or read,” per Tuscaloosa News. He also claimed he regretted his actions in a June 28 conversation with a blogger who’d previously spoken with Aiden Aslin, a British soldier sentenced to death in Donetsk. “I did not have a full understanding of what was going on” and would tell others to “look at sources outside of the West—be better informed,” Drueke said, per AL.com, which noted he may not have been speaking freely.

In this call, Drueke said he’d been in contact with a State Department official who did not convey “any concrete news.” His mother said a State Department case worker had told the family that “they were meeting with ambassadors and teams from Ukraine and also from the UK to discuss the British prisoners and all of y’all, and you and Andy were on the agenda.” She added, “It just might be awhile.” The State Department has only said publicly that it is in touch with family and “Ukrainian and Russian authorities” regarding the detainees. But Drueke’s aunt, Dianna Shaw, tells the Post that officials are working to include Drueke and Huynh on a list of prisoners for potential action. A third American, Grady Kurpasi, last seen in Ukraine in April, is feared captured or killed, per the Post.

Sorry no sympathy from me….he should have known what he was getting into….

I see Biden is planning even more aid to Ukraine…..more multi-million dollars worth…..now I ask why?

I have written about the PR blitz that Ukraine has put on using lobbyists to make their case and in turn get more cash…..

Ukraine has unleashed an incredible influence campaign in Washington. There’s a lag to the filing of lobbying disclosures. But even in the lead-up to the war last year, Ukraine’s lobbyists made more than 10,000 contacts with Congress, think tanks, and journalists. That’s higher than the well-funded lobbyists of Saudi Arabia, and experts on foreign lobbying told Vox they expect that this year’s number will grow much higher.

This spring, I’ve been invited to an elegant dinner with a parliamentary delegation and morning briefings (no breakfast, just coffee) at think tanks with Ukraine’s chief negotiator with Russia. Foreign policy reporters in DC have been inundated with requests. A journalist from another outlet, who asked for anonymity to be blunt, concurred: It’s been “a nonstop cycle” of Ukrainian visitors in Washington, they told me, “And think tanks that have basically become lobbyists but with a nonprofit status.”

https://www.vox.com/23188403/inside-ukraine-foreign-lobbying-blitz-washington-fara-justice

And you thought this was about democracy….it is about the money….only!

Just what is the national interest to pour much needed funds into this country and conflict?

I see NO national interests!

SOMEBODY HAS to say it: the war in Ukraine does not materially affect the permanent national interests of the United States or the geopolitical landscape in which we advance those interests. This conclusion—for good or bad or anywhere in-between—shouldn’t significantly impact the future of U.S. foreign policy. The war may tug on our heartstrings for sure, but it should not dissuade us from making the necessary changes to our grand strategy that position our country for long-run success, like our recent withdrawal from Afghanistan. These changes include increasing our focus on China as our most important strategic competitor, extricating ourselves from Europe and the Middle East, and emphasizing domestic renewal over ostensible altruism abroad.

However, there are important lessons for the future of U.S. foreign policy that can be learned from the conflict, especially regarding the offense-defense balance and Russia’s revealed conventional capability. But these aren’t the ones that you’ll hear from the foreign policy establishment, which will always spin positive outcomes or trouble overseas as reasons to redouble our commitment to the primacist status quo they favor.

Heads, I win; tails, you lose.

Ordinary Americans can be forgiven for thinking Ukraine must be especially meaningful for U.S. foreign policy. As the war unfolded, they could see red ink signifying Russian forces spreading across the map of Ukraine as Vladimir Putin’s aggression threatened Kyiv and other parts of the country. Prompted by hawkish commentators, they worried about whether Russia would stop at the western border. Daily, they were treated to intense battlefield videos of the most devastating war in Europe since World War II, some showing the cruelty of Russian soldiers while others the heroism of Ukrainian patriots.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/there-are-no-core-us-national-interests-stake-ukraine-203439

There are NO core national interests at stake in Ukraine…if that is true why do we keep throwing good money after bad?

Best answer that I have is…..to keep the profits flowing to those that make the most donations to those criminals we call a Congress.

This conflict ends to end or the US needs to walk away and let those most effected by the conflict take over….that means Europe.

You are now caught up…..well as caught up as it gets these days…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”