Vance VP Pick By Trump Sends Shivers Through Ukraine Advocates

In April, it was clear a bill to provide Ukraine with another $61 billion in weaponry and aid to fight against invading Russians would pass the Senate, its final hurdle before reaching President Joe Biden’s desk.

It had already passed the House on a massive 311 to 112 vote and was only hours away from passing the Senate by a similarly overwhelming 79 to 18 tally. The bill’s success was all but foreordained.

But Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), now the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, still railed against it on the Senate floor, comparing the rush to help Ukraine defend itself from an unprovoked Russian assault to the U.S. rush to invade Iraq. He recalled the 2005 image of triumphant U.S. lawmakersholding ink-stained fingers in the air to show solidarity with Iraqis holding free and fair parliamentary elections.

“What I am saying is not that the people of Iraq were bad or that they were bad for voting in their elections. What I am saying is the obsessive focus on moralism — ’democracy is good, Saddam Hussein is bad; America good; tyranny bad’ — that is no way to run a foreign policy,” Vance said.

Russia’s breaking of the post-World War II consensus against redrawing borders by force has been a big reason Ukraine has garnered support from the U.S. and across the West. But Russia’s sheer ruthlessness in the conflict has been another.

Russia stands accused of committing war crimes, including executing civilians in occupied areas, using rape as a tool of war and attacking civilian targets like power plants and shopping malls. The International Criminal Court at the Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While all the votes in April against the aid package came from Republicans, Vance’s opposition