Our Vital Interest in Ukraine

Whereas the president of the United States can dismiss any ambassador and no small number of other executive branch personnel for any or for no reason, why were we subjected to the teeth gnashing and anguished tears over the dismissal of former ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovich?

Apparently, the tough-as-nails strong empowered woman named Yovanovich was sorely offended that anyone, especially Rudolph Giuliani had spoken ill of her. Her presence at the House Intelligence Committee hearings yesterday had nothing to do with impeachment, and frankly, nothing to do with intelligence—which quality was sorely lacking from the minds of Democratic outrage mongers. And yet, the crowd stood up and cheered for a woman who has landed a teaching job at Georgetown. Oh, the indignity of it all.

One feels compelled to mention that the president’s hostile tweet, offered as the proceedings were beginning, tended to draw attention away from the show trial and toward his bad habit of throwing himself in the middle of a hearing that his allies would have worked in his favor. Bad move, undermining your supporters at just the wrong time.

As for ambassadors Taylor and Kent, star witnesses on the opening session, Mark Steyn offers a few thoughts on the work of these distinguished gentlemen. (via Maggie’s Farm) In truth, they were both seriously distinguished foreign service officers. In truth, foreign service officers do not make foreign policy… point that seems to have escaped them. Again, they seem largely offended by the fact that a New York real estate developer is not doing things as they would have wished.

Given the warped minds running these hearings, when the Obama administration refused to send arms to Ukraine to defend itself against hostile Russian aggression, it was no problem. When the Trump administration did send said arms to Ukraine, it was really, really bad. Perhaps not an impeachable offense, but still, very, very bad.

It takes boundless stupidity to take these hearing seriously. Steyn is the perfect man to point this out. He begins by exploding the myth that Ukraine is a vital national security interest of the United States:

In fact, northern Mexico is a vital national-security of America's, but under the mass wankerization of public policy Perma-Beltway cares more about the borders of Ukraine than it does about the borders of the United States.

As Ambassador Taylor put it:

Ukraine is a strategic partner of the United States, important for the security of our country.

We will not mention how well the Obama administration sat idly by while Russia annexed Crimea… duh, but Steyn offers his normally tart description of the overwhelming importance of Ukraine:

Does any rational person believe either half of that sentence? Ukraine is endemically corrupt and its principal exports are, to London and Paris "escort" agencies, its comely if unibrowed blondes and, to America, Hunter Biden's monthly stipend. Ukraine is a "strategic partner" of the Biden Family trust fund, and one can see that it might be inconvenient for sleazy corrupt princelings thereof to have to find new oligarchs to be on the take from. But out there in America Trump was elected because Americans think "the security of our country" starts on the Rio Grande not the Donets.