Today’s D Brief: Biden’s speech; Attacks on US forces; State warns Americans abroad; Ukraine’s winter challenge; And a bit more.
“History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction,” U.S. President Joe Biden told the nation in a televised primetime address Thursday evening. Those terrorists and dictators “keep going, and the cost and the threats to America and to the world keep rising,” the president said as he pleaded with Americans to support a new aid package for Israel and Ukraine that reportedly includes around $74 billion for those two nations—$14 billion for Israel and $60 billion for Ukraine.
“I know these conflicts can seem far away. And it’s natural to ask: Why does this matter to America?” Biden said in his address. He continued, “Hamas and [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.” That is, Israeli democracy in the case of Hamas; and Ukraine in regards to Putin’s ambitions, which he himself has repeatedly declared is an effort to restore the Russian empire of Peter the Great nearly 300 years ago.
“If we walk away and let Putin erase Ukraine’s independence, would-be aggressors around the world would be emboldened to try the same,” Biden said. “The risk of conflict and chaos could spread in other parts of the world—in the Indo-Pacific, in the Middle East—especially in the Middle East,” said Biden.
“That’s why, [Friday], I’m going to send to Congress an urgent budget request to fund America’s national security needs, to support our critical partners, including Israel and Ukraine,” the president said, describing it as “a smart investment” that will “help us keep American troops out of harm’s way, help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful, and more prosperous for our children and grandchildren.”
Biden ended his appeal by describing the values he felt he represented while traveling on a secretive train into wartorn Kyiv this past February. “With me was just a small group of security personnel and a few advisors. But when I exited that train and met Zelenskyy—[Ukrainian] President Zelenskyy, I didn’t feel alone. I was bringing with me the idea of America, the promise of America to the people who are today fighting for the same things we fought for 250 years ago: freedom, independence, self-determination.”
“I know we have our divisions at home,” Biden continued. “We have to get past them. We can’t let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation. We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win. I refuse to let that happen.”
Also included in the White House’s new aid request:
- $14 billion for border security, and
- $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific region, including support for Taiwan, ABC News and the New York Times report, citing U.S. officials.
This could pass, says Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. The ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee says the idea has some Republicans support, but they need to elect a speaker first. He spoke Friday at the Center for a New American Security.
One notable obstacle: “For the first time, a majority of Republicans think the United States should stay out of world affairs,” according to recent survey results from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. (Similar questions have been asked going back to 1974.)
What’s going on: “Republicans had been the strongest advocates of an active U.S. international role until about 2014,” the survey’s authors explain. “Around the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2015, Democrats assumed this position as the strongest proponents of U.S. engagement,” and they’ve maintained that top position in the nearly 10 years since.
However, an overall majority of Americans feel that active engagement abroad pays dividends: 58% support “maintaining the U.S. role in the world.” But 41% say the costs outweigh the benefits, according to the council’s findings. Read over the complete report, here.
For what it’s worth, Biden phoned his Ukrainian counterpart Thursday before that televised address in the evening. In the call, “Biden underscored the continued strong bipartisan support in the United States for Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and democratic future,” the White House said in its readout.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin phoned his Israeli counterpart again this week on Thursday. Austin updated Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on U.S. military aid for Tel Aviv, and Gallant briefed Austin on “the latest operational and humanitarian situation in Gaza,” according to the Pentagon.
Developing: The Pentagon will send two Iron Dome anti-missile systems back to Israel to help fend off rocket attacks, Reuters reported Thursday, citing congressional sources after a Wednesday briefing on Capitol Hill.
Austin made at least four other phone calls with his counterparts and leaders around the world on Thursday—including UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, and South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik.
Coverage continues below the fold…
Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston and Audrey Decker. If you’re not already subscribed, you can sign up here. On this day in 2011, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed just eight months after Arab Spring protests first swept into Libya, ultimately ending Gaddafi’s three-plus decades of rule.
U.S. forces in the Middle East have come under attack more than half a dozen times this week, including by drones in Iraq and Syria. And in a separate incident, a U.S. warship in the northern Red Sea intercepted an apparent attack on Israel. The latter episode is the most recent and involved three land-attack cruise missiles and several drones allegedly launched by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. Sailors aboard the USS Carney shot down those projectiles Thursday, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters in a briefing at the Pentagon.
“We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting, but they were launched from Yemen, heading north along the Red Sea, potentially towards targets in Israel,” Ryder said.
As for the other drone attacks, U.S. forces at al-Tanf, Syria, near the Jordanian border, were targeted Wednesday by two drones—one of which was shot down “while the other drone impacted the base resulting in minor injuries to Coalition Forces,” Ryder said Thursday.
And in Iraq on the same day, early warning system alarms sounded at the Al Assad airbase, causing personnel there to shelter in place. No munitions or drones landed at Al Assad, but “sadly a U.S. civilian contractor suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering and passed away shortly thereafter,” Ryder said.
“While I’m not going to forecast any potential response to these attacks,” Ryder told reporters Thursday, “I will say that we will take all necessary actions to defend U.S. and Coalition Forces against any threat. Any response should one occur will come at a time in a manner of our choosing.”
By the way: The State Department issued a “worldwide caution” advisory for U.S. citizens abroad on Thursday. “The potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests” triggered the alert, which advises Americans to “Stay alert in locations frequented by tourists.”
Additional reading:
Ukraine’s winter challenge. Five months of offensive operations have not breached Russia’s defense in Zaporizhzhia, writes Jack Watling, senior research fellow for land warfare at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute.
Why not? “The heavy attrition of experienced junior officers and trained field-grade staff has limited the scale at which offensive action can be synchronised. Combined with terrain that contains fighting and the canalising effect of dense minefields, Ukrainian forces have been restricted to company-scale operations. When they have expanded the scale of operations, Ukrainian forces have found that they lose synchronisation with their supporting arms.”
What now? “The Ukrainians now face a difficult set of competing imperatives: to maintain pressure on the Russians while reconstituting their units for future offensive operations.” Much more, here.
And lastly, some weekend reading: The Pentagon on Thursday released its 200-page annual report (PDF) on changes in China’s military since last calendar year. We provided a topline read in Thursday’s D Brief; but we had not yet been given the full report. The Defense Department published its own introductory statement on the new report, and you can review that here.
Have a safe weekend, everyone. And you can catch us again on Monday!
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