I find it troubling and breathtaking how quickly some are trying to deflect from Felonious' betrayal, not just of Ukraine, but our national security as well, with claims that US Administrations have betrayed Ukraine for the past 30 years. It's flat out nonsense.
There's a difference between policy decisions with which one can have honest disagreement, and betrayal. Call them bad judgment if you want, but betrayal? Betrayal is when you go back on your word because you've changed your mind about honoring it. A disagreement on how to best go about honoring that commitment is not betrayal.
To conflate the two is the sort of intellectually dishonest false equivalence that is the hallmark of what I call Fascist Performance Art.
Clinton, 1991 - 1992
The Administration made a deal that benefitted all parties involved at the time. To say it was a betrayal presupposes that the Administration knew at the time Putin would come to power, invade and the West would fail to enforce the deal's provisions, or the provisions would be inadequate when the time came.
Bush the Younger, 2001 - 2008
The Administration's decision to delay extending an invitation to both Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO in 2008 to appease Putin was clearly naivete. It was arguably a betrayal of their duty to protect our national security, but not a betrayal of Ukraine or Georgia.
The Administration's silence in response to Putin's invasion of Georgia was arguably a betrayal of the rules based order, and by extension Georgia, not to mention our own national security. Then again, the Administration had pretty much already betrayed the rules based order with it's invasion of Iraq, use of torture, etc, so there is that.
Obama, 2009 - 2016
Most would not have predicted Putin would jump the shark, invade Ukraine, and seize Crimea in 2014 in response to the fall of his puppet to a popular uprising in 2014. The failure of the Administration to predict and prepare for that possibility may have been poor planning, but hardly a betrayal.
Furthermore, unlike the non-response of Bush the Younger's Administration to Putin's invasion of Georgia, the Obama Administratiin did act. It imposed sanctions and sent aid and expertise to Ukraine so they could fix their notoriously corrupt and inept military, and train up personnel. Despite the Felonious Administration's subsequent efforts to destabilize Ukraine, Obama Administration efforts bore fruit when Putin invaded in 2022 and failed to decapitate Ukraine's government.
You might argue that the Adminstration could have and should have done more but again, that's a policy disagreement. It's not proof of betrayal. Notably, there was nothing in the deal the Clinton Administration cut that required direct military intervention, or even military aid for that matter.
Felonious, 2017 - 2020
The Administration betrayed Ukraine by using aid as a means to extort, destabilize and corrupt its government, as well as by loosening sanctions on Russia imposed in response to Putin's invasion and annexation of Crimea. That's not to mention betraying our national security in ways that are public record.
Biden, 2021 - 2024
There's a constant refrain of Tuesday night quarterbacks that the Administration betrayed Ukraine by deliberately not doing enough for Ukrainians to win. Personally, I think this war was destined to be a long slog no matter what the Administration did, and my earlier belief Ukraine could win in short order was naive. That isn't to say I agreed with the Administration's decisions, particularly those in 2024 regarding systems and ROE.
The reality that confronted the Administration and Ukraine in the wake of the Felonious Administration reign of error was daunting. People seem to forget that Ukraine needed everything when this war started, and there was a finite pool of funds available. What to send, where to source it, how to support it, etc, were and still are real challenges not overcome with the snap of a finger.
It would have been nice if we could have just beamed the stuff, spare parts and all, over a la Star Trek, and implanted how to operate and maintain it directly into their brains a la The Matrix, but alas. We cannot.
The Administration's team did a pretty stellar job dealing with what amounted to rebuilding an aircraft midflight. They successfully herded the cats in NATO and the EU to impose crippling sanctions and provide Ukrainians with what they needed as they needed it even as priorities had to change to address shifting Russian gambits.
That's how Ukraine went from on the ropes to liberating half the territory Russia initially seized in less than a year. They won the Battles of Kyiv and Kharkiv with Javelins, and ManPADs. They halted the Russian offensive in Donbas with advanced Howitzers. They took back Lyman, Kupyansk, Kherson City, etc, with HIMARS and HARMs. They defeated Putin's winter terror bombing campaign with IRIS-T's, Patriots, NASAMS, etc.
This phase is far more challenging. We have been trying to figure out how to get around contested air space, something not accounted for in our military doctrine and therefore equipment. The notion that this or that decision by the Administration would have changed that reality is ridiculous. There were and still are no silver bullets.
Was the Administration overly cautious about the risk of nuclear war, especially over the course of this past year? I think it was, but that's easy for me to say when I'm not the guy in the arena making that call. To call it a betrayal of Ukraine though? That's just simplistic nonsense.
Felonious, 2025 -
At the outset, things looked surprisingly good. The Administration let serious people handle the issue while the Principal's attention was focused on betraying Americans, his supporters in particular.
Now that he's turned his attention to Ukraine, that's changed. He's betraying Ukraine and our national security unlike any President from either party before him.
Oh, and let's also not forget that Felonious used his power as leader of the GOP to direct the Republican Majority in the House to embargo military aid to Ukraine for roughly half a year. The munitions shortages that resulted forced Ukraine to withdraw from a key fortified city, Avdivka which they had managed hold for 19 years despite constant attacks since the outbreak of war in 2014. That in turn opened the door to Russian forces making their greatest territorial gains since their initial gains in 2022.
So as I said, no previous President betrayed Ukraine, only Felonious, and claims to the contrary are intellectually dishonest false equivalent both siderism. It's Fascist Performance Art which is how we got Felonious in the first place, and the second time around as well.
