"It's just shocking. I've never seen anything like it," the president said Monday.

“It’s just shocking. I’ve never seen anything like it,” the president said Monday.

President Joe Biden called the behavior of House Republicans “shocking” on Monday for “walking away from the threat of Russia” for not passing aid for Ukraine.

“The way they’re walking away from the threat of Russia, the way they’re walking away from NATO, the way they’re walking away from meeting our obligations. It’s just shocking. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Biden said in remarks to reporters on the White House lawn.

Biden’s frustrations with House Republicans have increased after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died Friday in prison.

The president urged House Republicans to pass aid for Ukraine on Friday, saying, “It’s about time they step up, don’t you think,” instead of going on an extended recess, which he called a “two-week vacation.”

    • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
      393·
      10 months ago

      When we met our obligations they won the logistical war in Crimea and forced Putin to resort to terror bombing civilian targets in central Ukraine. Victory for Ukraine now means the destruction of the Russian state. Russia made it existential so of course the odds are long.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
        312·
        10 months ago

        It was fun while the mortar shells lasted but we’re completely out of shells and the remains we do have Biden wants to give to israel.

        Russia has turned their economy into a war economy and produces like 5 million shells a year now. Meanwhile we can do 500.000.

        Also we did a coup in Pakistan to make them sell their shells to Ukraine but now that’s also starting to fail.

        A great video with top journalist Ryan Grim about the subject

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
            22·
            10 months ago

            Here’s a good article about it

            TLDR: Imran Khan wanted to stay neutral on Russia-Ukraine. America said you must pick Ukraine and help them in war. Then America overthrew the government using the IMF and they jailed Khan for some super BS like his marriage not being religiously valid.

            The Pakistani people have recently voted against the American backed government even though the government tried to massively rig the elections.

            Pakistan is known as a production hub for the types of basic munitions needed for grinding warfare. As Ukraine grappled with chronic shortages of munitions and hardware, the presence of Pakistani-produced shells and other ordinances by the Ukrainian military has surfaced in open-source news reports about the conflict, though neither the U.S. nor Pakistan has acknowledged the arrangement.

            The economic capital and political goodwill from the arms sales played a key role in helping secure the bailout from the IMF, with the State Department agreeing to take the IMF into confidence regarding the undisclosed weapons deal, according to sources with knowledge of the arrangement, and confirmed by a related document.

            To win the loan, Pakistan had been told by the IMF it had to meet certain financing and refinancing targets related to its debt and foreign investment — targets that the country was struggling to meet. The weapons sales came to the rescue, with the funds garnered from the sale of munitions for Ukraine going a long way to cover the gap.

            Securing the loan eased economic pressure, enabling the military government to delay elections — a potential reckoning in the long aftermath of Khan’s removal — and deepen the crackdown against Khan’s supporters and other dissenters. The U.S. remained largely silent about the extraordinary scale of the human rights violations that pushed the future of Pakistan’s embattled democracy into doubt.

            • Flumpkin@slrpnk.net
              1·
              10 months ago

              Thanks for the link, holy shit. The TMR interview actually did mention that article but didn’t really put it in context.

              What is interesting though is that they provide a bit more background to Imran Kahn as a Trump-like populous that got co-opted by the Pakistan military and his own election in 2018 was also quite questionable (previous PM was jailed). Until they had a big falling out ending in riots and mass arrests.

              Overall this story reminds me a bit of Patriot… so much shady dealings and then falling flat on their faces, including now failing to properly rig the election lol. I’m not even sure if I should root for Imran Khan here. Hasan Ali describes him as willing to do pretty much anything in the pursuit of power.

              But it’s scary how precarious all this is and the role of the IMF and US. They get the bailout but have to cut energy subsidies which leads to protests and political instability… I feel like more and more the wheels are coming off in all these meddling affairs around the world.

              • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
                2·
                10 months ago

                Khan seems like the democratically elected leader. I’m not too informed and/or going to vouch for his policies, but we can’t say

                “People should have a democracy and vo… No wait not voting like that! You have to 100% ally with America and can’t be neutral on a war!”

                • Flumpkin@slrpnk.net
                  2·
                  10 months ago

                  Yeah I agree with that. It just seems that either way Pakistan is a long way off a stable democracy.

    • dwalin@lemmy.world
      131·
      10 months ago

      Does it matter? Its their right to fight, and in our duty/interest to help

        • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          91·
          10 months ago

          Duty to defend an avowed ally? Interest because Ukraine is the only country standing in the way of Russia and NATO Art. 5.

          Disagree all you want. You’re wrong.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
          102·
          10 months ago

          So they’re not allowed to defend themselves against russia? Lol the fuck are you smoking…

            • harmsy@lemmy.world
              123·
              10 months ago

              If we just let Russia steamroll through and take bites out of Europe with impunity, it’s going to be World War Three. Putin won’t stop with just Ukraine. He’ll try to take everything he thinks he can get.

              • some_random_nick@lemmy.world
                1·
                10 months ago

                An honest question - why would he want Europe? The assumptions for why he attacked Ukraine were because of some huge natural gas reserves that were discovered and because the pipeline from Russia to Europe goes thru Ukraine and they are forced to pay transit fees or something like that. The rest of Europe is all Nato and they can legaly attack them from all sides. Wouldn’t the decision to open a new front be like the most retarded thing to do?

                • harmsy@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  10 months ago

                  Some of the countries that he’s on the record about wanting are part of NATO and/or the EU. If he tries to take them, it doesn’t matter how much of Europe he actually wants to mess with. All of Europe will get involved.