McLean County Times

Bloomington native and U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)'s call for a U.S. military-enforced no-fly zone has drawn stern criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike as well as world leaders who claim it would be akin to the "United States declaring war on Russia.”

U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-California), who represents San Diego County and serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, said Kinzinger's idea would require U.S. pilots to battle with Russian ones.

“A no-fly zone is enforced, not declared. It requires our fighter jets to go directly against Russian fighter jets, to get them to stay out of a certain airspace,” said Jacobs. “If the United States were to do this, our fighter jets would potentially have to shoot down Russian jets. This would mean the United States declaring war on Russia.”

About Kinzinger's idea, Republican Ohio U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance said, "this is insane. Just totally insane."

"This isn’t our fight. We’ve got our own problems. Ignore the people who’ve destroyed our national credibility with decades of catastrophe," Vance said.

United Kingdom Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that a establishing a no-fly zone would require the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to declare war on Russia.

"To do a no-fly zone, I would have to put British fighter jets directly against Russian fighter jets. NATO will have to effectively declare war on Russia, because that’s what you would do," Wallace said.

Newsweek Opinion Columnist Josh Hammer, a conservative, said Kinzinger's idea was "truly horrific."

"Oligarch-targeting sanctions, for instance, seem perfectly sound. But Kinzinger-esque calls for a no-fly zone? What a truly horrific idea," he wrote. "Neocon/neolib shrieks of hysteria to fight Putin like he's Hitler going into Poland amounts to an empirical misjudgment (Russia is corrupt petrostate with economy size of Italy) and a tactical blunder."

Socialist journalist Andre Damon said Kinzinger's idea would result in "full scale war."

"That would mean NATO SAMs on NATO territory attacking Russian air forces in Ukraine. Russia would likely respond by attacking the SAM sites on NATO territory, triggering a full-scale war. Madness.," he wrote.

On Friday, Kinzinger called for the U.S. military to "declare a (No Fly Zone) over Ukraine at the invitation of their sovereign govt. Disrupt Russias air ops to give the heroic Ukrainians a fair fight.  It’s now, or later."

"History teaches that taking a stand is inevitable and gets more costly with time.  We own the skies, Russia cannot hold a candle to our Air power.  Do this.  Putin is too dangerous to hope he is satisfied with 'just Ukraine,'" he said. “We could certainly shut down Russian air operations, even if we don’t directly engage Russian troops on the ground."

Kinzinger, 44, attended Normal West High School and Illinois State University in Bloomington. He served on the McLean County Board from 1998-2003 and was first elected to U.S. Congress in 2010. 

Last October, he announced he wouldn't seek re-election in 2022.