U.S. Congress Demonstrates Global Leadership by Supporting Taiwan, Ukraine, and Israel

VOC’s President and CEO, Dr. Eric Patterson, writes for Providence Magazine on the historic package of foreign policy funding that was passed by Congress to aid Taiwan, Ukraine, and Israel.

Patterson notes in the article that, “This week, both chambers of the United States Congress passed a vital and historic package of foreign policy funding.  Over the course of just a few hours on Saturday, the House of Representatives successfully voted in desperately needed military assistance for three valiant underdogs: Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine. It also passed an important piece of legislation that would ban TikTok unless control over the app is transferred away from its current ownership, which is directly linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

The day before these historic votes, the House of Representatives Select Committee on Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party released a detailed report of $6.5 billion sent by US investor funds, such as Blackrock, to Chinese entities, including those directly tied to the Chinese Communist government. 

The timing of these votes is also an important indicator for those who fear a resurgence of isolationism in the Republican Party.  These votes demonstrate that the isolationist wing of the right is much weaker than it appears.  As Ben Domenech wrote this week in The Spectator, in a review of an important new book, We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War by Matthew Kroenig and Dan Negrea, the majority of Republicans do not want to see a retracting of the American-led international order.  Domenech’s article reports the disjunct between the minority of isolationist voices like J.D. Vance and the wider sense among centrists and conservatives that America still has a vital role to play in the world. The shift in national rhetoric has made it increasingly clear that America should pursue its vital interests in ways that encourage and work through other countries acting on their own national interest. This was the message of the Trump national security policy; notdisengagement, but an expectation that others should pay their fair share and act responsibly. 

It is unfortunate that some crazed electioneering managed to nearly derail financial support for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel, but the House and Senate votes demonstrate that the majority of our elected representatives recognize how important it is that America’s external defense is over there, not just over here. Ukraine is fighting on NATO’s flank against our historic enemy, KGB-trained leaders and oligarchs ruling in Moscow.  Russia has engaged in armed aggression in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine as well as sown chaos among its Baltic and Scandinavian neighbors. Containing Russia is an American national security imperative.

With our help, Israel is fighting radical Islamism in southern Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, and the wildernesses of Yemen.  In doing so, it is defending a larger order that includes neighbors such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia.  Clearly, the Biden administration and the majority of Republican voters understand the broader context of Israel’s fight, so support for the Jewish state was quite high in Congress, despite the ugly scenes on American university campuses. The difference of opinion is likely explainable by the graphically violent imagery from October 7th that Members of Congress, as well as the Biden Administration, have had access to, leading them to understand the enduring threat posed by Hamas.“

Read the full article in Providence Magazine.

Dr. Eric Patterson is President and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.