Last month, Ukraine's Prime Minister asked the United States for military support in fending off the push by Russia to either annex or envelop a significant portion of eastern Ukraine. President Obama declined this request, instead choosing to send support in the form of non-lethal assistance.
As the U.S. is sending non-lethal support, Canada has announced that they are sending fighter jets to NATO to assist Ukraine in defending its sovereignty. In conjunction with the deployment of the fighter jets, Canada's Prime Minster Harper issued a strong written statement about the situation, “Canada remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine and will not stand idly by while its sovereignty and territorial integrity are threatened.”
Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) AP Photo/Susan Walsh
At a Pentagon press event, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Thursday that America would be sending non-lethal aid -- helmets, medical supplies and sleeping mats.
There are members of Congress who want the United States to send weapons to Ukraine's military. However, President Obama's response seems to be focused on his repeated threats to punish Russian President Putin with "consequences."
The lack of concrete military support for Ukraine from the United States has drawn criticism of the president from both the left and the right.
Image: MSNBC screen capture
Tuesday, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," during a discussion about President Obama's response to Ukraine's request for military support (the prepackaged meals -- MREs -- to the Ukrainian troops), the panel spoke with Zbigniew Brzezinski, a national security adviser to former President Jimmy Carter. He criticized Obama's policy by declaring, "Well, you can't win a military conflict by throwing pancakes at somebody."
Brzezinski's comments on Putin and what he calls a "piecemeal invasion of Ukraine" starts at the 2:30 point of the video:
Wednesday night on Fox News, conservative writer George Will weighed in on the White House's move that sent the MREs to Ukraine in unmarked trucks instead of military planes. Will explained that using military planes to deliver the supplies could have been considered "provocative."
Will also delivered a direct hit when he described Obama's policy in this less-than-flattering manner.
"Some presidents take their foreign policy from the idealism of Woodrow Wilson, some from the realism of Henry Kissinger. This is foreign policy from Monty Python," he said.
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