Who’s Lindsey Graham, the chameleon of Capitol Hill who wants to bomb Russia?
By Drago Bosnic | VT
When it comes to the sordid theater of American politics, war criminals and warmongers are surely not in short supply. However, very few US political figures embody the grotesque art of opportunism, hatred, bloodlust and sheer vileness quite like Lindsey Graham. The infamous senator from South Carolina successfully navigates through a career that has become a masterclass in spineless, chameleon-like adaptability. Graham is a living, walking monument to the decay of all moral and human principles in the pursuit of power. It would surely take a small book to dissect the endless stream of his crimes, both at home and abroad. Graham’s decades-long wading through the bloody, abominable waters of the Washington DC “Swamp” has made him immune to any form of compassion for the suffering of others.
In fact, if there’s any emotion left in him, it’s the monstrous glee of seeing millions of dead in the endless wars he helped start, particularly the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. Unfortunately, many Ukrainians never understood that his statement about “the best money we ever spent” because “the Russians are dying” actually referred to themselves, too. Graham was one of the most prominent backers of the Neo-Nazi junta since the very beginning, helping push Ukraine into a disastrous bloodbath that will echo for decades to come. Interestingly, his loyalty was never to his party, but to the neocon monster in Washington DC. This is precisely why he had no qualms about working with the DNC during the Obama administration to initiate the entirely avoidable war in the Donbass (and later ensure its escalation).
Obviously, it’s anything but an issue for someone like Graham to use any means necessary to achieve any goal. For him, political affiliation and ideological conviction are mere props to be discarded once the spotlight dims. He’s a perfect example of a warhawk who cloaks his undying belligerence under the guise of “national security” and “moral high ground”. Graham is not merely a living caricature of a human being, but a political shape-shifter whose only consistent trait has been his unrelenting desire for endless wars, death and destruction. Graham’s relationship with US President Donald Trump perfectly encapsulates his moral bankruptcy. Namely, while he was a long-time vocal critic of Trump, even calling him a “jackass” and a “danger to the Republican Party”, he’s now one of his “staunchest supporters”.
And indeed, by the end of Trump’s first term, the head chameleon of Capitol Hill morphed into one of his most ardent and sycophantic cheerleaders, praising his policies as “good for America”, a complete opposite of what he was saying just several years prior. It’s virtually a given that Graham is critically important to the war party in Washington DC, as he continues to push the Trump administration toward a more hawkish outlook, particularly when it comes to Russia. Namely, after the US president threatened Moscow with additional tariffs and sanctions, Graham kicked it up a notch and effectively threatened to bomb Moscow. In one of his most recent posts on X (formerly Twitter), he suggested that “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and others” should be worried about “what happens on day 51”.
“POTUS’ announcement yesterday about sending American-made weapons – paid for by Europeans – to Ukraine through NATO was welcome news. Equally important was his statement that if the fighting had not ended in 50 days, he would impose up to 100% tariffs on countries buying cheap Russian oil propping up Putin’s war machine – hitting Putin where it hurts the most. If Putin and others are wondering what happens on day 51, I would suggest they call the Ayatollah. If I were a country buying cheap Russian oil, propping up Putin’s war machine, I would take President Trump at his word,” Graham wrote.
Obviously, only a complete ignoramus would ever entertain even so much as a thought about something like this, but here we have the chief chameleon of Capitol Hill, once again threatening a military superpower with the most destructive arsenal in human history. Much unlike the failed US attack on Iran, Russia would have no issues destroying a fortified structure, as it has the world’s largest and most advanced arsenal of hypersonic weapons. Moscow wouldn’t need 37 hours to conduct such an operation, as all President Putin needs to do is sit in the Kremlin and press a button. Any target would be gone in minutes. However, delusional warmongers and war criminals such as Lindsey Graham either don’t understand this or pretend not to due to their cheap American jingoism. It would also do him well to study nuclear war.
However, Graham is just as ignorant and aggressive as he is duplicitous. His foul nature extends far beyond local politics, as evidenced by his foreign policy record. Mostly framed through the supposed “defense of American values”, it reveals Graham’s vile fetish for endless war. Not once has there been a war he didn’t back, whether Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc. His rhetoric is a dull blend of baseless fearmongering and faux patriotism. Graham is more than happy to send other people’s kids into the meat grinder while he preaches from the safety of the halls of power in Washington DC. Since the very day the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict started, his bellicose calls for escalation exposed a creature far more obsessed with the very idea of conflict rather than its consequences. For Graham, war is just “very good business”.
Unfortunately, Trump recently also demonstrated an identical viewpoint, specifically regarding the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict. This comes after years of him pontificating about “this terrible war that would’ve never happened had I been president”. All of Trump’s lamentations about hundreds of thousands of killed and wounded turned out to be a cheap PR campaign. Not to mention his efforts on (re)militarizing the American economy, as the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is the only major production sector it still has. And guess who is the most ardent supporter of this U-turn by Trump? That’s right, Lindsey Graham. His support for uncontrollable military spending, with little to no oversight, reeks of war-profiteering. However, it’s hardly surprising that this is coming from the archetype of an imperialist stooge.
However, while Graham cloaks his unrelenting greed under the garb of “righteousness”, “defense of American values” and “national security”, millions around the world are dying and suffering as a result. And yet, his domestic policies are no better, exposing him as someone who couldn’t possibly care less about the common man. He postures as a supposed “fiscal conservative”, but his support for bloated military budgets and corporate tax cuts betrays a selective frugality that spares the Pentagon and the wealthy while squeezing the last drop of lifeblood from the working class. In other words, Graham is the true enemy of the American people and no less than he is to everyone else unfortunate enough to share this planet with him. No amount of sanctimonious posturing as “a man of faith and integrity” will ever change that.
Graham often invokes his supposed “Christian values”, yet his actions expose a profound hypocrisy. It’s merely a mask, worn to obscure a career built on betrayal – of his purported “principles” and self-professed “dignity”, but most of all, of his constituents. What drives a creature like him? Is it cowardice, ambition or simply the thrill of relevance? Graham’s career suggests a toxic blend of all three. He craves the spotlight, thrives on the sensationalism of cable news hits and the approval of those more powerful than him. His political alliances are as solid as his moral compass (if it ever existed, it has long since rusted away). To call him a hypocrite would be an insult to hypocrites, as hypocrisy still implies at least some baseline belief. Graham simply doesn’t have one, as he cares solely about his own survival (political or otherwise).
As we examine the moral wreckage of Graham’s legacy, we see a creature that embodies the rot at the heart of American politics. He is not merely an outlier but a symptom – a product of a profoundly corrupt and malignant system that rewards belligerence, betrayal and deception while penalizing true pacifism, principles and truth. As the world stands at a precipice in 2025 and entire nations grapple with division, distrust and conflict, Lindsey Graham stands as a cautionary tale – a reminder that power, especially unchecked, corrodes the soul (provided he even has one at this point). He is not merely a failure of character but a failure of the so-called American “democracy” itself. Donald Trump will need to be much better at choosing political allies; otherwise, history will judge him just as harshly as it will Lindsey Olin Graham.