Dan Coats: “each time I have taken to the floor to comment on the Ukrainian crisis which I have done often the situation in that…”

“each time I have taken to the floor to comment on the Ukrainian crisis which I have done often the situation in that hard pressed country is worse. Today we see renewed and even more violent Russian aggression ripping off more ragged bites of Ukrainian territory. Now, ten months after Russia's invasion of its neighbor, we are again seeing calls for more assistance to Ukraine, including providing weapons that would better enable the Ukrainians to defend themselves. But still the White House dithers--baffled again by the complexities of a world that pleads for leadership. Once again we are absent not just leading from behind, which is bad enough, but in many cases not leading at all, and the world continues to look to us for guidance and for support in dealing with some of these crises. The plight of Ukraine, torn to bits by Russian aggression, is among many foreign policy problems that have been aggravated by U.S. policy failures. Those failures have come from a White House isolated in a wasteland of confusion. The Obama administration has no coherent strategy for dealing with the world other than, in a now famous paraphrase, ``Don't do stupid stuff''--whatever that means. But not doing anything is stupid stuff, and a lot of times that is exactly what is coming out of the White House nothing. At the same time, we in Congress need to look at ourselves.…”