By TIPP EDITORIAL BOARD, TIPP Insights

On November 4, when the country was breathlessly anticipating the outcome of the midterm elections a few days later, the Pentagon announced yet another $400 million package of weapons to Ukraine. These announcements had become so routine – amounting to over $65 billion since the war started – that most people yawned.

The war, then in its ninth month, had already lost much of its news value. But in the recent announcement was a plan that should have set off alarm bells globally. The Defense Department was staffing a new command, called the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, or SAG-U, based in Germany and within the Pentagon’s European Command structure. The single purpose? To help train and equip Ukraine’s military. The Pentagon spokesperson said that the $400 million also funded a project to refurbish 45 tanks from the Czech Republic, which will start arriving in Ukraine by the end of December.

Back in early September, declassified intelligence reports said Russia is purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea to re-energize its offensive in Ukraine. This development was just days after the New York Times reported that Iran delivered to Russia the first batch of two types of military drones as part of a larger order totaling hundreds of aerial war machines. A month later, OPEC+ nations, led by Saudi Arabia, agreed to cut production to keep oil prices high, pleasing Russia and so angering the United States that the Biden administration placed U.S.-Saudi relations under review.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy tracks military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. As of October 3, the database tracked nearly 40 countries, specifically the E.U. member states, other members of the G7, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, and India, that had contributed funds to Ukraine.

On the other side, Belarus remains Russia’s most prominent supporter by allowing troops to enter Ukraine from its territory. Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Kyrgyzstan have all made public declarations of solidarity with Russia. By buying discounted Russian oil, China and India have continued to fill Russian coffers and keep the Rouble’s value 40% higher than before the war. In contrast, every major international currency has fallen to 30-year lows.

Many countries with nothing to do with the war are in its sights anyway. In June, the A.P. reported that the chairman of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macy Sall, told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions had worsened food shortages and appealed to other countries to ensure grain and fertilizer exports aren’t blocked. A U.N.-brokered deal has allowed Ukrainian and Russian grain to flow to 43 countries suffering from supply shortages.

Meanwhile, energy shortfalls, mainly due to Western sanctions, have pushed national economies to the brink. An IMF report in October pointed out that inflation was higher than in several decades. “Global growth is forecast to slow from 6.0 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and 2.7 percent in 2023. This is the weakest growth profile since 2001, except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Yet the corporate media continues to willingly tow the administration’s line as the war enters its tenth month. The media has been grossly negligent in pushing through only one narrative. Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine and must be punished. We agree, but at costs on the global scale we listed above? Definitely not.

The GOP taking back the House indicates that the American people do not want to reward Congress for encouraging an inept foreign policy. A foreign policy so disastrous, that it seems to have inadvertently dragged much of the world into the conflict.

The new GOP leadership should prioritize applying intense pressure on the administration, including withholding funds from the war effort to stop further escalations. Yet, on the Sunday morning news shows, incoming GOP chairmen meekly repeated the administration’s demand that funding for the war would continue intact.  We are shocked that even with 221 seats no incoming GOP committee leader recognizes the facts we list above.

Without prompt action, which has fallen on the Republican members to spearhead, we fear the Russia-Ukraine war could morph into WW3.

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