We don’t seem to hear very much debate about the wisdom of continuing to feed weapons and cash to the Ukrainian government these days, at least not from our betters in Washington and on most cable news networks. The rationale for this is almost always the same. We need to “preserve democracy” or “fight the Russians over there so we don’t need to fight them here.” But one question that receives much less attention concerns something that should be rather fundamental. What is this war really doing for the United States? Are we more secure because of it? Rasmussen Reports decided to take that question to the people and the results are quite different than the perception you likely get from the media. Fully half of Americans believe that the war in Ukraine has damaged America’s national security and they want to see a negotiated peace settlement. Only a relative handful (14%) believe that fighting the Russians in Ukraine has made us more secure.

More than a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, half of U.S. voters think the war has harmed America’s national security and many want to see a negotiated peace.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 50% of Likely U.S. voters believe the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made America’s national security situation worse – up from 42% last September.

Just 14% now  say the Russian invasion has made U.S. national security better, and 28% think it has not made much difference.

These results clearly indicate yet another case where the government is failing to read the room. According to the White House, along with nearly every Democrat in Washington (the party that used to be opposed to wars) and a depressing number of Republicans, the situation is obvious. We have to keep supplying Ukraine and funding this war because… we just have to. And we have to keep doing it “for as long as it takes.” But that’s not how most of the voters these people supposedly represent feel.

Of course, nobody ever voted on this question. That’s the beauty of the plan for the supporters of an endless war. We’re not technically “at war” with Russia because it’s a proxy war. We get to spend all of the money and deplete our military stockpiles but we get someone else to do the actual fighting and dying for us. It’s a win-win, at least if you work in the defense industry.

But why would anyone think that the situation in Ukraine is helping America’s national security or making us “more secure” in the first place? Every new shipment of increasingly powerful weapons pushes Vladimir Putin closer to one of his “red lines.” If you bring up the idea of a negotiated peace settlement, you’re a “Putin stooge” or a “Russian disinformation agent.” We’re told that the idea of a peace settlement that doesn’t remove Russia from all Ukrainian territory is tantamount to surrender. But a lot of the people saying this were awfully quiet back in 2014 when Russia grabbed most of the Crimean area. Where was the outrage then?

The odds of Vladimir Putin simply giving up, going home, and returning all of Ukraine’s territory are basically zero. He’ll keep conscripting troops and firing missiles into Ukraine for as long as he still has the supplies to do so. And that could be a long time indeed. Are we really going to keep doing this for another year? For two more years? Five more? Or are we going to push Zelensky to come to grips with reality and engage in legitimate peace talks? Fighting a war (even by proxy) with no plan to “win” or even identify when your objectives have been achieved flies in the face of basic military strategy. And this entire affair is not popular with the voters. You would think the swamp creatures in Washington might care about that, wouldn’t you?