Bush is expected to encourage the GOP to further fund the conflict.
QUICK FACTS:
- Former president George W. Bush and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will engage in a public discussion about the war in Ukraine on Tuesday.
- According to David Kramer, the managing director for global policy at the George W. Bush Institute, President Bush “believes in standing with Ukraine” and is expected to encourage Republicans to continue funding the nation’s bloody conflict.
- “Ukraine is the frontline in the struggle for freedom and democracy. It’s literally under attack as we speak, and it is vitally important that the United States provide the assistance, military and otherwise to help Ukraine defend itself,” the Bush spokesperson went on.
- Zelenskyy has spoken very highly of Bush in the past, calling him the “Winston Churchill of our time.”
- At this point, the United States has sent more than $54 billion to Ukraine and President Joe Biden announced another $400 million to be sent to the Western European nation this week.
UNITED STATES’ EFFORTS IN UKRAINE:
- Questions about America’s support for Ukraine have been making the rounds, particularly after news that U.S. biolabs could be at risk due to the conflict.
- Watchdog group Judicial Watch received 345 pages of records from the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) indicating that the United States funded anthrax laboratory activities in a Ukrainian biolab in 2018.
- The DTRA records were given to Judicial Watch in response to a February Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records regarding the funding of Black & Veatch‘s work with biosafety laboratories in the country of Ukraine.
BACKGROUND:
- Bush’s track record with wars is considered less than stellar by many due to the outcome of his incursion into the Middle East, where no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, though their existence was used as justification for doing so.
- Recent data indicates that In Iraq, 4,550 American service members and 3,793 military contractors died between March 2003 and October 2018 and an additional 2,401 military members died in Afghanistan during roughly the same period.
- It is believed that among veterans of the Middle East conflicts, more veterans have died by suicide than died due to actual conflict.
- During Bush’s time in office, The Patriot Act was put into place, passed under the pretense of stopping terror attacks. However, that act has been credited with a number of violations of civil liberty.
