Looking back, 1968 was indeed a year to make people question their security. Remember Vietnam protests, Martin Luther King’s assassination, race riots, hippie/establishment clashes, the Chicago National Democratic Convention riots, and the Robert Kennedy assassination?

But back to the indelible Forbes sentence: “The United States ceased supplying weapons to Ukraine last month when funding ran out, and pro-Russia Republicans in the U.S. Congress have refused to approve fresh funding.”

It has taken 56 years, but my mother was right on. How did this happen?

Pretty much since the end of World War II, Russia and the United States have been mortal enemies; and for good reason. We are diametrically opposed in our views on human rights, economic systems, political systems, just about everything.

And while it’s true that the U.S. has engaged in foreign wars over the past 79 years, it has been to protect democracy around the world and to protect the existence of independent nations. Russia, on the other hand, has unabashedly often launched military campaigns with intent to conquer and absorb its neighbors.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent by both countries to arm ourselves against the other. Humans have been to the moon as a result of Russian–U.S. competition. A new state of human existence and fear known as “mutually assured destruction” came into being. And now we are dealing with pro-Russian United States congressmen — not just two or three, maybe a dozen!

Until recently it would have been unimaginable that Congress would cut off military assistance to a European ally in the midst of a life-or-death struggle with Russia.

If that sounds like hyperbole it most definitely is not. Congress has cut off all military funding for Ukraine by refusing to even vote on the most recent Ukrainian aid package.

Vladimir Putin and others in the Kremlin have said they don’t consider Ukraine a free and independent country and that they intend to reabsorb it into a rejuvenated Russian empire. To wit, Russia has kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children and dispersed them to families all throughout Russia — an act which has resulted in the International Criminal Court in the Hague charging Putin with war crimes.

In its 2023 fiscal year budget, the United States provided about $45 billion in military aid for Ukraine in a 368-to-57 House of Representatives vote. The vast majority of that money is paid to American defense contractors and their U.S. employees. It is not given to Ukraine as a blank check. That sum is just 2.6% of our $17-trillion federal budget for the year.

With no current shipments of weapons coming from the U.S., and none promised for the immediate future, other countries are trying to fill the gap, but Ukraine is still facing a huge falloff in aid.

The impact of pro-Putin U.S. lawmakers is already being felt on the battlefield, where Ukraine is being pounded by five Russian artillery shells for every one they can return. In fact, Ukraine’s abandonment of Avdiivka last week was blamed on recent ammunition shortages.

In September 2023, the House of Representatives voted to approve another, smaller emergency Ukrainian aid package by a vote of 311 to 117.

Then Mike Johnson became Speaker of the House and he has refused to even let Congress vote on an aid package worth about $60 billion dollars, which would carry Ukraine through the current fiscal year. Speaker Johnson does not want to help Ukraine and he knows the bill would pass easily if he allowed Congress to vote on it.

Various reasons have been floated to support the baseless theory that Americans have lost interest in supporting Ukraine, but I can say from personal experience that I have not seen any such hesitance in helping. I raise money at craft fairs for a local Ukrainian non-profit called Dobro NE. People often give me much more than an item is being sold for and tell me to keep the difference.

The American people, and three quarters of Congress, want to help Ukraine. Let’s tell Mike Johnson to do his job of serving the people of the United States and just allow Congress to vote on continued aid for Ukraine.