Ukraine was a pawn in U.S. political games - Senator Brewer

Ukraine was a pawn in U.S. political games - Senator Brewer

Ukrinform
Ukraine became hostage to the political confrontation between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, but in the end, more moderate lawmakers did everything to get the military aid package for Ukraine passed.

Nebraska State Senator Tom Brewer, a retired U.S. Army Colonel with extensive combat experience, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"There was no justification for what they [the Russians] did. And then the brutality of things people saw early in the war even caused them to polarize more toward Ukraine. Unfortunately, what happened over time is what you might call war fatigue, or that the war in Israel and the Gaza Strip pulled all the attention away and your war was sort of forgotten. And then that combined with a political battle that was going on on the southern border. And again, why Ukraine became a pawn that was being played in this big chess game. It was never right or fair but it was happening," the politician said.

He explained that a small number of far-right lawmakers were questioning giving aid to anyone abroad because they believe all money should stay in America.

"A kind of a cookie look at the reality of the world because you can't isolate yourself. We see what happened in World War 2 there, and that just is a very, very bad decision," Brewer said.

He added that at the same time critics of Israel vented their anger on the U.S. government and its initiatives, in particular, by blocking aid to Ukraine.

Read also: Senator Brewer: U.S. needs to learn from Ukraine in using unmanned systems

"Sometimes, when you have the crazy voices that are the ones on the microphone and people who don't do a lot of thinking, then they're able to influence in a negative way the things that they shouldn't be able to influence," the politician said.

However, according to him, there are "those in the middle that see the benefit and they're the ones that voted for and ultimately got the aid package through."

"I guess the good news is the extremes on each end are relatively small. The center is the part that gets most legislation done. And that's the part that that was willing to provide aid to Ukraine," Brewer said.

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