Yeah. I don’t mind certain leaders going to Ukraine (President/PM, Secretary of State/Foreign Minister, Military Officials) to signal support in the face of Russia. But to some extent once we get into senators and those far less connected, it does appear like photo-op diplomacy. While I’m sure these people have the best intentions, there’s a lot of domestic issues they should be dealing with. Not to say one can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, but from an optics standpoint it’s not ideal.
I’m all for supporting Ukraine and holding Russia accountable for war crimes, but I don’t necessarily think Garland needs to go to Ukraine to make that point. A point which has already been made by Biden, Blinken, etc. And let’s be honest, holding Russia accountable for war crimes will be extremely difficult, I’m curious how they intend to this, and I have my doubts it’ll happen in the long run. Some European countries will be more than happy to sweep this under the rug and turn the pipelines back on ASAP.
It’s also worth noting, I can only imagine the American and Ukrainian resources that go into safely transporting high level American officials through a war zone. These could probably be spent in better ways.
