The Congressional Progressive Caucus last week issued, then quickly withdrew, a poorly timed letter to President Joe Biden urging stepped-up efforts to negotiate a settlement to the war in Ukraine, putting their fellow Democrats in the awkward position of appearing hand-wringing and indecisive ahead of midterm elections. The letter’s wording raises the question of whose side the progressives are really on: Russia’s or the West’s?
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, authored the letter. Right under her signature is that of Rep. Cori Bush of St. Louis, an early and outspoken skeptic of U.S. support for Ukraine and critic of the heavy economic sanctions the administration has imposed on Russia. The letter reiterates the hardships caused by the sanctions and suggests that Biden should offer to halt them as an enticement for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to negotiate.
Biden has made clear from the beginning that the sanctions will end when Russia ends its illegal invasion of Ukraine. What Bush and her cohorts have never seemed to grasp is that war criminals like Putin do not understand the language of diplomacy. He has poisoned and assassinated his critics, jailed others and harshly cracked down on free expression within Russia. When Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, used chemical weapons against his own people, Putin sided with Assad.
