American envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are mediating a second day of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi — the first such meeting in nine months — while back home, the southern border remains as porous as ever and the price tag for U.S. involvement in Europe's war keeps climbing.
The talks matter because every dollar and every diplomatic calorie spent brokering security arrangements on the other side of the planet is a dollar and a focus not spent securing the United States. Nearly five years into a war that was supposed to be over in weeks, Washington is still playing global referee — and ordinary Americans are still footing the bill.
Kushner told delegates the U.S. had
