The war in Ukraine is not a jobs program

A cynical White House campaign.

It’s a short newsletter today, folks, because I have a very quick — but important — point to make.

It stems from this Politico story:

The White House has been quietly urging lawmakers in both parties to sell the war efforts abroad as a potential economic boom at home.

Aides have been distributing talking points to Democrats and Republicans who have been supportive of continued efforts to fund Ukraine’s resistance to make the case that doing so is good for American jobs, according to five White House aides and lawmakers familiar with the effort and granted anonymity to speak freely.

The push, first previewed publicly in President Joe Biden’s Oval Office address last week, comes ahead of the election of a new House speaker, with the White House trying to invoke patriotism to help convince holdout Republicans not just to help Kyiv but to pass a major package that includes funds for Israel as well.

This is incredibly cynical.

The war in Ukraine is not a jobs program. It’s not an economic stimulus. It’s a war. People are dying, horribly.

My own instincts in matters of war and peace lean toward peace, as you probably know. But I’ve still been inclined to be — cautiously — supportive of Ukraine’s defense, because the Ukrainians are on defense. They did not ask for the war.

But a lot of Americans are apparently ready to move on.

I’m not going to wade into that fight today. There’s a lot that goes into the decision of how and whether to continue aiding Ukraine — assessments of the aftermath, the issue of not-infinite U.S. resources, balancing aid there to what Americans leaders hope to do for Israel and in the Pacific.

I won’t pretend the issue is simple.

The White House is failing to make its case, though. And so it’s turning to an alternative. It’s encouraging Americans to see support of Ukraine as a good for profiteering reasons.

Maybe that will work.

But it makes me less — not more — inclined to support the war effort.