The House progressive caucus, led by Rep. Primala Jayapal (D-WA), released a well-meaning but awkward letter urging Biden to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war on Monday, October 24, 2022. Within 24 hours, they retracted and disavowed it (see story here).
As described by The Hill here, the letter expressed concern about destruction of Ukraine and risk of a catastrophic escalation, and urged President Biden “to consider directly engaging with Russia and to become more assertive in negotiating a cease-fire in Ukraine.”
Well meaning, because anyone with a sense of humanity wants this awful war to end. Awkward, because no one with feelings for the Ukrainian people wants it to end on Putin’s terms, and how do you avoid that except by fighting it out on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s prospects are improving daily? And how does pushing the Ukrainians to negotiate with him not kneecap their soldiers’ efforts and sacrifices?
It was awkward for other reasons, too: The timing, just before midterm elections; and politically, because it looks like a weak and fear-driven reaction to Republican threats to cut off or scale back U.S. military aid to Ukraine. It also could encourage Russia to fight harder by inducing Putin to believe American support is wavering.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) admitted the letter “had big problems.” No kidding. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) said she wouldn’t sign it now, which leaves me wondering why she signed it then. Anticipating that question, she said, “Timing in diplomacy is everything. A lot has changed.” Again, no kidding, but I would argue the idea wasn’t better then than it is now; if anything, worse, because Ukraine had a weaker bargaining position then.
After the letter bombed, Jayapal said, “Every war ends with diplomacy, and this one will too, after Ukrainian victory.” Not exactly. The Civil War and World War 2 ended with unconditional surrender; the negotiated armistice that ended World War 1 set the stage for another world war. And the Korean War truce speaks for itself. So war-ending diplomacy has a decidedly checkered track record.
In any case, the end of this war is still months or longer in the future; and when the letter was drafted, Ukraine looked much less like the potential winner than it does now. Like the letter itself, the rationalizations are falling flat.
As a last resort, they’re trying to blame the fiasco on “staff.” But “staff” didn’t sign the letter — they did — and as a comment under the AOL News article noted, “Staff NEVER does anything without prior direction.” Maybe someone did hit the “send” button when they weren’t supposed to, but if so, all that proves is lax supervision.
These Democrats messed up. But that doesn’t mean you should vote for their Republican opponents. In Jayapal’s case, that’s Cliff Moon (photo, right), a political novice whose campaign website tells you nothing about how he’d vote on Ukraine aid, but whose rhetoric appears to echo Republican talking points (see story here).
At least Jayapal and her colleagues can admit a mistake, which is more than you can say for any of today’s Republicans.