By Jamie McIntyre. Media: Washingtonexaminer
ZELENSKY: ‘WE DID NOT ACHIEVE THE DESIRED RESULTS’: In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press, conducted Thursday in the war-ravaged northeastern Ukrainian town of Kharkiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky offered a sobering assessment of the shortcomings of Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive against Russian forces, while remaining resolute about the need to keep fighting.
“We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately, we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact,” Zelensky said. “We are losing people, I’m not satisfied. We didn’t get all the weapons we wanted; I can’t be satisfied, but I also can’t complain too much.”
“There is not enough power to achieve the desired results faster. But this does not mean that we should give up, that we have to surrender,” Zelensky said. “We are confident in our actions. We fight for what is ours.”
Zelensky said the onset of winter marks “a new phase of war,” and he’s bracing for another campaign by Russia to target its energy infrastructure to inflict more misery on Ukraine’s civilian population. “That is why a winter war is difficult,” he said.
ISRAEL-GAZA WAR DIVERTING ATTENTION: Zelensky remains concerned that having achieved incremental territorial gains despite tens of billions in Western aid, support for Ukraine is flagging, especially with the upheaval in the Middle East, where Israel’s war to wipe out Hamas has resumed after a short pause to free some, but not all of the hostages abducted by Hamas.
“We already can see the consequences of the international community shifting (attention) because of the tragedy in the Middle East,” Zelensky said. “Only the blind don’t recognize this.” Ukraine is running low on ammunition, and approval of future aid by the U.S. Congress remains in doubt.
Ukrainians understand “that we also need to fight for attention for the full-scale war,” Zelensky said. “We must not allow people to forget about the war here.”
US PUBLIC OPINION: While some recent polls suggest the American public is growing weary of supporting Ukraine, a new survey by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation shows that a strong, bipartisan majority still supports Ukraine.
The poll of 2,500 Americans conducted over ten days in late October and early November found that “Americans are unsure who is winning but remain broadly supportive of Ukraine,” according to the bipartisan firms conducting the poll.
In response to a question about whether a Ukrainian victory is important to America, 76% said it’s important, with 48% saying it’s very important. As for funding, 59% support military aid to Ukraine, while 30% are opposed.
“Support for military aid is highest among those over 65 years of age (70% support), the college-educated (66% support), and Biden supporters (79% support). Among Trump supporters, 44% support and 47% oppose,” the pollsters reported.
The poll found that 34% of respondents believe Ukraine is winning the war, while 31% say Russia is; 23% say neither, and 12% say they do not know.
HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Santa Clara County, California, today for meetings with Australian Defense and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps to discuss the Australia-U.K.-U.S. security partnership known as AUKUS. The meeting will take place on the campus of DOD’s Defense Innovation Unit at Moffett Field.
Tomorrow, Austin is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the 2023 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley.
GAZA WAR RESUMES: Israeli warplanes were on the attack again today in the Gaza Strip after each side blamed the other for the failure to extend a weeklong truce to allow more hostages to be traded for Palestinian prisoners.
More than 100 Israelis and other foreign nationals were freed over the past week, but about 140 hostages remain in Gaza, mostly men, but some women and children who may be held by other groups in Gaza.
The U.S. and Qatar, which has served as a mediator along with Egypt, are pursuing efforts to reinstate the ceasefire.
“We share the elation, the relief, of the families from more than a dozen countries, including the United States, who’ve been reunited with their loved ones. And yet, there are scores of families here in Israel, the United States, and around the world whose loved ones continue to be held captive and who are desperate to get them home safely,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv yesterday. “We will not stop working until we get every hostage back home with their families and loved ones.”
IRAN: STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM: The latest State Department Country Reports on Terrorism, which covers the year 2022, continues to list Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, as it has since 1984.
The report does not address Iran’s possible role in the brutal October terrorist attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians but notes its continued support for terrorist activity, including support for Hezbollah, U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza, and other terrorist groups throughout the Middle East.
“Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to provide support to terrorist organizations, provide cover for associated covert operations, and create instability in the region,” the report detailed. “The IRGC-QF is Iran’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorist activity abroad … Iran also used regional militant and proxy groups to provide deniability, in an attempt to shield it from accountability for its destabilizing policies.”
“In Yemen, Iran has provided a wide range of weapons, training, advanced equipment such as UAS, and other support to Houthi militants, who engaged in attacks against regional targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” the report noted, prompting Jonathan Schanzer, a senior vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, to post on X, “In other words, Houthis cited in the report as evidence of terror support but are not designated.”
FREEZE THE $6B IN IRANIAN FUNDS: In a bipartisan 307-119 vote, with 90 Democrats joining Republicans, the House has passed a bill that would force the Biden administration to permanently freeze $6 billion in Iranian funds it freed up in return for the release of five Americans unjustly imprisoned in Iran.
“I am relieved that Americans held hostage by Iran are safely at home. They have been through a terrible ordeal and should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and sponsor of the measure. “But as part of this deal, the administration dropped charges against five Iranian criminals charged with endangering our national security, including by aiding Iran’s nuclear program. And at Iran’s request, the administration waived sanctions on $6 billion dollars of Iranian funds which had been frozen in South Korea,”
“Under this deal, Iran is getting access to 1.2 billion dollars per blue passport, per American citizen. It is obvious that this agreement incentivizes more hostage-taking,” McCaul said on the House floor before the vote. “The administration is claiming that this money can only be used for humanitarian purchases, like food and medicine. But Iran has a long history of sanction evasion and money laundering, [which] means we cannot truly know where the funds end up or how they will be used.”
The Biden administration says the funds belonged to Iran under a policy instituted during the Trump administration designed to allow U.S. allies, such as South Korea, to buy oil from Iran, so long as the payment went into an escrow fund for humanitarian purposes.
In an appearance on Fox News Monday, NSC spokesman John Kirby said President Joe Biden has no regrets about the deal.
“We got five Americans back home with their families, where they belong. Those kinds of decisions are always tough for any commander in chief to make,” Kirby told Fox’s Martha MacCallum.
“That money cannot be touched by the regime. It can only be used for vending… through approved contractors, humanitarian assistance. The regime never touches that money,” Kirby said. “And none of it, even as you and I are speaking, none of it has been touched.”
TUBERVILLE’S NEW ANTI-WOKE STRATEGY: For months, it’s been about the Pentagon’s policy that pays for troops and their families stationed in states with abortion bans to travel for reproductive care, now Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) one-man crusade is about admirals and generals he considers too woke.
Tuberville now says he will not be lifting his hold on every nominee but instead will keep enforcing holds on Biden nominees he deems “woke,” according to reporting from the Washington Examiner’s Samantha-Jo Roth and Emily Jacobs.
“Now, we’re working towards getting, which I’ve been very much for getting the promotions over with, we need to get them promoted,” Tuberville said, speaking with reporters on Thursday afternoon. “We are going through all the people that are up for promotion. We will promote people in the very near future. I don’t know how many people at one time. I’d like to get it done here in the next week or so.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is still hoping to get enough Republican votes for a temporary rules change to override all of Tuberville’s holds before the Christmas break in a few weeks.
“I saw today that Senator Schumer says he’s going ahead with the resolution. I don’t think he’s got the votes,” Tuberville said. “So we’ll talk again today and probably Tuesday on the resolution.”
“I’ve involved all my colleagues, we’ve had real good discussions about this, about the proper way to do this because we do want to stand up for life and the taxpayers not having anything to do with abortion, and get these people that need to be promoted, promoted,” he said.
Discussion about this post