America should stand with Ukraine and set aside internal politics
By Ray Hanania
The terrorist regime in Tehran, Iran is providing weapons to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Iran is the same nation that supports terrorist militias that have targeted American soldiers who are fighting to eradicate the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
And, Iran is partnering with Syria to block relief from getting to Syrian and Turkish victims of the recent earthquake. The earthquake struck a region of Syria controlled by anti-Assad forces.
Syria’s dictator Bashar Al-Assad who is in Damascus wants to regain control of the region and hopes the earthquake has devasted the opposition.
It hasn’t.
Instead of standing up to confront Russian war crimes in Ukraine, many Republican leaders have been silent or critical of the mission there.
Republicans were critical of Vice President Kamala Harris when she spoke out against Russian atrocities directly targeting Ukraine civilians in its so far failed “three day war” that will hit one year February 24.
Never mind that Harris is not a great leader and hopefully will never be president. Republicans are using the Ukraine war and President Biden’s support of Ukraine against the Russian tyranny there to score political points against Biden.
Regardless of whether you support Biden, who has failed to achieve many of his promises including bringing the country together himself, the bigger threat is Russia and its terrorist leader Vladimir Putin.
Putin is a tyrant who undermined elections and killed challengers using radiation. Nothing happens in Russia without Putin’s knowledge and clearly he is behind the cyber attacks. He makes it possible for anti-American terrorist groups like Iran, Hezbollah and Syria target American interests, soldiers and assets around the world.
Republicans assert America should spend the billions it is giving to Ukraine to help all Americans instead of just a political few.
The tax burden on Americans is excessive, especially on Seniors. The problem isn’t just Republicans. It is Democrats, too.
Biden was supposed to bring the two parties together but he has instead used the White House as a bully pulpit but the Republicans are doing the same thing.
This week, even Gov. J.B. Pritzker the political megalomaniac who is fueled by the drive to control issued a political attack against Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for visiting Illinois.
Despite Pritzker’s well financed PR spins, people in Illinois are suffering economically. Retail costs are skyrocketing. Seniors and the poor are impacted the most. Nicor, as I noted last week, has doubled costs and other heating fuel companies are following suit, with no real oversight or restraint.
We can’t allow domestic challenges to distract from Russian and Iranian threats. Supporting Ukraine is the most important foreign affairs stand we can take.
MORE INJUSTICE IN COOK COUNTY: It was disheartening to see Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx charge Oak Lawn Police Officer Patrick O’Connell in the July 27 incident when a teenager, Hadi Abuatelah, with a loaded weapon, refused police orders and tried to escape during a routine traffic stop.
O’Connell is charged with using excessive force to stop Abuatelah who grabbed the weapon when he exited the vehicle. Oak Lawn Police did nothing to the other youth who stepped out and listened did what he was told. Clearly, the intent was not to punish these teenagers who happen to be Arab.
Some in the community want to turn this into a George Floyd incident to boost their ineffective, failed leadership. Foxx, who is soft on criminals and doesn’t care about protecting law abiding citizens, should prosecute Abuatelah for having the weapon and not obeying police.
All Abuatelah had to do was get out of the car, like his friend, and allow police to frisk him. But he didn’t, probably knowing they would find the illegal weapon.
That’s on Abuatelah and his parents who should be held accountable for their teenager carrying a weapon. Why was Abuatelah carrying a weapon? Fortunately, he was stopped before anyone could find out. Patrick O’Connell is a hero, guilty only of being excessive in his restraint.
PEKAU POWER OVER PEOPLE: Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau is unhinged and is twisting and distorting info on his referendum to eliminate the Village Manager position to he can consolidate power.
Pekau says he will keep a “village manager position” if the referendum passes to eliminate the current position. But he will take more control which means the only real purpose for the referendum to eliminate the Village Manager position is to give Pekau more power and open the door for him to get more money, too.
Pekau says he supports term limits but no one believes he won’t run for a third term, now that his congressional candidacy embarrassingly flopped on its face.
Vote YES to keep the Village Manager system.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. A political analyst and CEO of Urban Strategies Group, Hanania’s opinion columns on mainstream issues are published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. His Middle East columns are published in the Arab News. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at rghanania@gmail.com.)
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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