Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is a hawk of the old school, and he does not countenance the appeasement of aggressive foreign dictators and despots. At a time when the various MAGA GOP political upstart stars crudely paint American support for Ukraine as a sin against so-called “America First”, Graham berates political “simple mindedness.”
Graham understands that U.S. security is predicated on a global world order in which dictators are constrained by Western democracies, with the U.S. — being the world’s foremost power — as the chief block against fascism, geopolitical aggression, and global chaos.
Graham scoffs at pols like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose Neville Chamberlain-esque characterization of the Ukraine-Russia war as a “territorial dispute” enrages those who, like Graham and fellow Senator Mitt Romney, see and speak to the bigger picture.
With his latest outburst, Graham denigrates the naive political positioning of people like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who insinuates that support for Ukraine is somehow the same as neglecting the citizens of East Palestine, Ohio.
Greene has dubiously asserted that the U.S. must make a binary choice between supporting those fighting Vladimir Putin‘s European aggression and providing relief to Ohioans affected by the toxic train wreck, as if the two things were mutually exclusive.
Graham uses “simple minded” multiple times to describe such thinking and its incumbent dangers. Not mincing words, the Senator says when it comes to a “war criminal” like Putin, there is no room for “capitulation and forgiveness.”
In a tweet storm this afternoon, Graham raged against such “simple minded” thinking, espousing and enumerating the qualities of a sophisticated world view to those who can’t — or won’t — see past their own districts. A safe United States, Graham understands, begins far from any U.S. border. Here is the Graham tweet storm in full.
The worst ‘simple-minded’ thinking is to reward aggression in the hopes you get less of it.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 30, 2023
The worst ‘simple minded’ thinking is to believe Defunding the Police will lead to more order and security in our streets and neighborhoods. 1/3
The worst ‘simple-minded’ thinking is that if you require a country to capitulate and excuse war criminal behavior, the world will be safer. 2/3
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 30, 2023
Most importantly, the worst ‘simple-minded’ thinking is that China and Iran are not watching everything we do regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 3/3
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 30, 2023
Any ‘so-called’ peace agreement that requires Ukraine to give up territory they controlled in 1994 – when they voluntarily transferred their nuclear weapons to Russia – would make the Afghanistan withdrawal look ‘smart.’ 1/3
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 30, 2023
Any peace agreement that forgives and forgets Putin’s war crimes, particularly the kidnapping of children by force of arms, will destroy any semblance of the rules-based order. 2/3
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 30, 2023
As we saw in Afghanistan, it’s not when the war ends in Ukraine, it is how it ends. Those who are advocating capitulation and forgiveness for Putin are setting in motion disastrous events for other parts of the world.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 30, 2023
Putin is a war criminal and must be held accountable. 3/3
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