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Cockburn has never been much of a hawk, unless you count his begrudging deficit hawkery over the massive tab he ran up at his local bar. But many elected Republicans are very hawkish on foreign policy, supporting “peace through strength,” as Ronald Reagan put it, as well as occasionally war through strength.
So how are the GOP’s highest-flying hawks handling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Cockburn was surprised to find them divided.
Nearly every Republican lawmaker (and Democrat for that matter) agrees that we need to throttle Russia with economic sanctions. It’s on the question of whether the United States should implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine that the cracks begin to show. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi said yes to a no-fly zone as early as last week, telling the Huffington Post that “a strong coalition of like-minded nations should step in and seriously consider this.” He was joined by Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who took to Twitter to demand that the United States “Declare a #NoFlyZone over Ukraine at the invitation of their sovereign govt.”
Cockburn notes that while Kinzinger might be the media’s favorite Republican “moderate,” his moderation apparently does not extend to the question of whether we should court thermonuclear holocaust. A no-fly zone would put American and Russian jets into conflict with each other, which could result in a dangerous escalation between the two nuclear-armed countries. This risk is why Senator Marco Rubio warns that a no-fly zone could mean “starting World War III.” It’s why even Senator Tom Cotton, arguably the most hawkish member of the Senate, hasn’t echoed Kinzinger.
Senator Lindsey Graham, another hawk with sharp talons, also rejected a no-fly zone, but he did chime in with another brilliant idea: assassinate Vladimir Putin! Graham’s suggestion was so unhinged that it was denounced even by GOP conspiracy doyenne Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as by Senator Ted Cruz.
It’s a reminder that, at least when it comes to foreign policy, the Republican “moderates” are often the extremists and the extremists the moderates. As for Cockburn, he’ll be spending this afternoon researching how to convert a wine cellar into a fallout shelter.
