Common sense is in short supply, especially in our nation’s capital.
The career policymakers who make up President Biden’s team, like those in the Obama administration, are wedded to old, unshakeable traditions that have produced nothing but failure.
They do not understand the stupidity of some Orthodoxy, especially how we provide support to Ukraine.
Mr. Biden has been incredibly slow to get Ukraine the weapons it needs and is allowing the war to drag on indefinitely as casualties continue to mount.
result?
It is politically divided at home and efforts have lagged overseas.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We can provide Ukraine with the resources it needs to achieve victory, and we can do so while serving U.S. national and economic interests.
We need clear-headed leaders who see the problem as it is and have the courage to reject Washington’s failed conventional wisdom.
Fortunately, President Donald Trump has proposed a solution that accomplishes just that.
President Trump has presented a common-sense plan to provide military and economic aid to Ukraine in the form of loans.
Under this system, agreements to provide future aid would be conditional rather than charitable.
The agreement is simple. The United States will continue to help Ukraine, but the amount of aid we give will be repaid and will no longer burden American taxpayers once Ukraine has a chance to rebuild its once-growing economy.
Loans and loan guarantees have a long and successful history in American foreign aid and will work for Ukraine as well.
Ukraine is a wonderful country with a prosperous and vibrant future if given the chance.
What Ukrainians want is not handouts, but a chance to succeed and quell Russian aggression.
This plan accomplishes that. This is a deal that every Congressman and even every American can support.
We all want to see Russian President Vladimir Putin defeated in Ukraine – Trump’s plan will do that.
Some poor countries may not be able to repay American aid, but if this war has proven anything, it is that Ukrainians are tough, innovative, and proud people who will rebuild and succeed.
Remarkably, this is the kind of non-establishment thinking that President Trump succeeded in keeping America and the free world safe for four years.
And that is exactly what has been missing under the Biden administration.
Let’s take a moment to “step back,” as Biden officials like to say.
Let’s go back to a time when the world was safer.
When no men or women, including 13 American servicemen, had died fleeing Afghanistan.
When Iran did not have the courage to mobilize proxy forces to attack US military bases.
Back when Hamas wasn’t attacking Israel and killing over a thousand people.
Back when Putin hadn’t invaded Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.
Back when Chinese President Xi Jinping wasn’t blatantly flying reconnaissance balloons over Americans’ heads.
And so it was at a time when European allies were close to meeting NATO spending commitments and in a good position to thwart Putin.
This was not lucky. It wasn’t a coincidence.
For four years, Trump and our administration were able to prevent this from happening by building a model of deterrence based on common sense principles that keeps our adversaries at bay.
We did not pay the ransom.
We did not send foreign aid to terrorists.
We enforced the law at our southern border.
At the time, America’s enemies respected American power, feared American retaliation, and understood that the best path forward was through reluctant cooperation rather than provocation or hostility.
American presidents have supported this deterrence model in the past, but it took President Trump to reinvigorate it.
Now it’s gone.
Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro still exist, and they are still committed to building a world fundamentally opposed to the American way of life. There is.
If you need proof of that, just look at the last four years.
Biden put America at a disadvantage and gave his enemies an advantage.
He has proven incapable of leading the United States in the face of these growing threats.
He’s not keeping America safe.
President Trump’s plan to provide aid in the form of loans to Ukraine is a reminder of why he was so successful as president.
In November, Americans would do well to remember that four years ago, thanks to that same leadership, America was far richer, safer, and more powerful than it is today.
Mike Pompeo served as Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021.
