WWIII Watch: Neocons Whine At Hegseth Over Ukraine

I wonder what kind of financial stake they have in continuing to prop up Ukraine?

McConnell Tells Hegseth America’s Reputation Is at Stake in Ukraine War

Two senior Republican senators sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s handling of Russia in its efforts to end the war in Ukraine, revealing a deepening public split in the party on foreign policy.

Senator Mitch McConnell — one of three Republicans who opposed Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation in January — opened a Senate budget hearing with a blunt critique of President Trump’s approach to Ukraine.

“It seems to me pretty obvious America’s reputation is on the line,” said Mr. McConnell, the former Senate majority leader who leads the Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee. “Will we defend democratic allies against authoritarian aggressors?”

Mr. McConnell, an outspoken hawk on Russia and military issues, has been critical of the Trump administration’s defense spending plan, and countered Mr. Hegseth’s argument that the administration was making the largest investment in the military in 20 years through Mr. Trump’s reconciliation package.

Mr. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said that putting military spending into that package and not increasing spending in the regular budget “may well end up functioning as a shell game to avoid making the most significant annual investments that we spent years urging the Biden administration to make.”

Yeah yeah yeah

The exchange between Mr. McConnell and Mr. Hegseth offered a glimpse into the widening foreign policy gap between the diminishing cohort of internationalists in the Republican Party, like Mr. McConnell, and an emboldened wing led by figures like Mr. Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, who articulate an “America First” view of U.S. involvement around the globe.

“We don’t want a headline at the end of this conflict that says Russia wins and America loses,” Mr. McConnell told the Pentagon chief, chiding him for failing to include additional military assistance for Ukraine in the Pentagon’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

What they never really say, and Lindsay Graham, is how, exactly, Ukraine can win. And how WWIII can be avoided.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, also challenged Mr. Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on whether President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was going to stop at Ukraine, if successful on the battlefield there.

“I don’t believe he is,” General Caine said.

Russia is having a tough time taking Ukraine: how will Putin go after other nations?

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