The United States has to continue to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia, but in exchange, "we have to require that Ukraine participates in peace talks," Fred Fleitz, the vice-chair of the America First Policy Institute Center for American Security, commented to Newsmax Sunday.
"They don't have to agree to something they can't support, but there should be some kind of ongoing process to end this war," Fleitz, a Newsmax contributor and former chief of staff to the National Security Council, said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"I don't know what the end game is of this war and how we're going to get out of it," Fleitz added. "I don't want us to be involved in a forever war in Ukraine, where the Russians just decide they're never going to concede and they destroy the country with missiles. We have to have an end-game plan."
In addition, the United States needs an inspector general to monitor how its monetary aid is being spent in Ukraine, as it had during the war in Afghanistan, said Fleitz.
"I don't know why this administration won't agree to that it," he said. "It would win it a lot of votes on the right and left."
There are also "real concerns" that the aid to Ukraine is depleting critical military stockpiles in the United States, particularly high-precision missiles, said Fleitz.
"We may need them if there's going to be a war between China and Taiwan, and I think that's going to be an issue that's going to be hotly debated in the new Congress,' he said.
Fleitz also commented on President Joe Biden's age and competency, as the president celebrates his 80th birthday Sunday.
"The president is showing his age," he said. "I think we all know that. You know, there's an issue right now about these memos in front of him, documents that seemed to be he's reading before meetings and speeches."
All presidents have prepared remarks, Fleitz said, but he's concerned about whether the president is "just reading these speeches and documents that are given to him by staff, and if that's the case, who's actually president? Who's running the White House?"
Meanwhile, there is "evidence of clear mental decline" while Biden weighs in on difficult subjects, said Fleitz, and while all presidents read remarks, "the staff has extraordinary control over the president's policies and I'm not sure we know exactly who these people are all the time."
He also referred to the recent summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping as "strange."
"Afterward there was no joint press conference and there was no joint statement," said Fleitz. "Biden said in a statement that he raised Taiwan. He raised North Korea. He said that there was an agreement that nuclear weapons will never be used in Ukraine. The Chinese released a statement that didn't say any of those things…we needed both leaders to stand on the world stage and tell what they agreed to and this White House could not get that from China."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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