Memo to Austin and Blinken: It’s Time to Resign and Save Your Reputations

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” This was said by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after visiting Ukraine last April. Secretary of State Antony Blinken seconded Secretary Austin’s comments.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. did not agree with this comment and others supporting Ukraine and asked the two senior cabinet members to tone down the rhetoric. The United States has now supplied weapons and other aid in the billions of dollars to Ukraine in its fight to defend itself against naked Russian aggression. Yet the weapons supplied to Ukraine have not been of the type and quality that could do any damage to Russian territory. The Commander-in Chief wants a negotiated peace, meaning a Ukrainian surrender to Moscow. What’s going on here? How can Ukraine negotiate from any position of strength, much less equality, when it is barred from attacking Russia and must merely continue a defensive posture against a vastly superior aggressor? Are noble Ukrainian soldiers, who have been battling for months merely cannon fodder who are bleeding and dying in vain? We certainly hope not.

From the time the Ukrainian Rada issued its Fourth Universal, proclaiming an independent republic, it has had to struggle against Russian imperialism. No less a figure than Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s Commissar of Nationalities, opposed this struggle for freedom. Today, Stalin is being resurrected by another extreme Russian nationalist vozhd. This cannot be permitted to continue as the natural question is “which country is next?”.

If the most valuable possession a person has is his/her reputation, the time to resign has come for Secretaries Austin and Blinken. Their reputations, their honor and integrity should be worth more to them than serving in the failing Biden administration which seems to stand for nothing but failure. Anthony Eden resigned as Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom in opposition to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy toward Fascist Italy. Resigning requires courage, true, but courage should not be in short supply at a time like this. Let us hope that Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken are as courageous as the times truly require. Eden could resign. So must they.

Garry S. Sklar

Guttenberg, NJ

June 15, 2022