In his Washington Post column David Ignatius provides his take on what needs to be done to help Ukraine against Russia. Here’s his assessment:
Ukrainian officials have argued that they need more heavy weapons, fast, to hold the line against the Russian offensive in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in the east. To take just one example, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian official, tweeted this week that his country needs 300 multiple-launch rocket systems, or MLRS — nearly 30 times what’s on the way.
The example illustrates a weapons-supply problem that worries many American experts. Just four MLRS rocket launchers have actually been delivered, officials say, with eight more arriving soon. “Twelve is not enough. Not even close,†counters retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who commanded U.S. Army troops in Europe. “It seems like we keep pulling our punches, and all that does is prolong the war.â€
And this is his prescription:
Administration officials are right that this isn’t a time for panic about Ukraine. But President Biden needs to demonstrate, in a way that gets attention in Kyiv and Moscow, that he is truly prepared to deliver on his promise to give Ukraine “the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression,†as he put it in his May 31 op-ed in the New York Times. He can underline that statement by providing Ukraine with more weapons, more quickly, as it battles a brutal Russian offensive.
Is it my imagination or does that smack of the “Green Lantern theory” of the presidency? That the president can do anything if he or she has the will to do it?
There are several questions Mr. Ignatius does not address. How many weapons are the Ukrainians capable of handling? Is the barrier to providing more weapons to the Ukrainians our will or our ability to produce them? Do we actually have the ability to ship more weapons to the Ukrainians or will we just be providing targets for the Russians? And what about our European allies, Germany in particular? Is Mr. Ignatius’s view that we should stand up so they can stand down? Or doesn’t he trust them?
