Ink Spots
A young nation, fighting a much more powerful empire, faces long odds of victory or even survival. That young cou nt r y’s leader foll ows a strategy that keeps his army intact, forcing the larger aggressor to pour more and more men and resources into the fight. So long as his army remains, the country remains, even though key cities and swaths of territory have been occupied by the enemy.
If you’re a student of history, you might recognize a story now 250 years old - the story of our American Revolution and George Washington’s dogged chess game of war against the strongest nation on earth at the time, the British Empire.
But, even the courage of America’s Continental soldiers and militiamen wasn’t enough to prevail alone. Without the assistance of France, it’s arguable that we wouldn’t be an independent country today. And, if there had never been a United States of America, how different world history would have been.
There are many parallels in this story with the current situation in Ukraine. A newly independent country in 1991, much-smaller Ukraine is fighting Russia; many times its size and population. Its strategy, somewhat like Washington’s, is to wear down the Russians, trading small territorial losses for huge Russian losses in men and materiel.
Many Americans have come to admire Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. I count myself as one. Americans love to root for the underdog, especially when it’s being bullied by something much stronger. Historically, certainly within the past 100 years, we’ve been repelled by naked aggression. But as much as we feel an emotional pull to support Ukraine, that can’t be the overarching factor in determining a country’s foreign policy.
The reason we need to support Ukraine is that it’s fighting what is, truthfully, our own worst enemy in today’s world. Russia has been waging a covert war against us and the West, ever since Putin took over in 2000. Cyber attacks, troll farms, mercenaries sent into foreign countries, interference in foreign elections, and finally, four years ago yesterday, a military invasion of another sovereign country are all part of a strategy of social and political destabilization.
Putin has made no secret of the fact that he wants to recapture the lost republics of the old Soviet Union. He covets the Baltic states, Georgia, Moldova and other nations established out of the USSR in the early 1990s. Repression in Russia today rivals that of Stalin’s time. His Achilles heel has been the endemic corruption in Russian society that has bled the military of resources, and given the general population a third-world standard of living.
Russia is like the mad dog in “To Kill A Mockingbird.” The Russian government is reckless, ugly, brutal, selfish and irredeemable. They’ve never lived up to any agreement or treaty, unless there was international pressure on them. I think Russia’s history dictates that it will always be, underneath, an imperialistic autocracy. It’s all they’ve ever known. George Kennan’s containment policy of the 1940s may have been the right approach to Russia after all.
It’s farcical that Russia actually is demanding that Ukraine hand over territory to it, as a condition of a ceasefire. The real reason Russia wants that remaining 20 percent of the Donbas is because that’s the defensible land in that area. They can’t dislodge the Ukrainian defenders, so they think someone might be stupid enough to give it to them in exchange for a few months of ceasefire. All the while, the Russians would be rebuilding, and then resuming the attack.
Putin understands only one thing – strength. The only way to end this war is by giving Ukraine the strength to oppose R ussia o n a n e qual basis. This doesn’t require American or European troops, but it does require consistent material support. Europe has stepped up. The United States’ support is wavering. Putin is chortling in the Kremlin.
You ask, how is this our fight? I think that’s the wrong question. It’s not our fight, it’s Ukraine’s fight, but we have a stake in the outcome. The stake the United States has is that our economy, and that of much of the world, depends on stability. We need stable trading partners, and the European Union is one of our largest and most important.
Beyond that, Russia may be gambling that the United States’ fecklessness could mean we would welsh on our promise to stand by our European NATO partners in the event that Russia, after subduing Ukraine, moved on Poland or the Baltics. Ukraine has proven to be much tougher than anyone, especially Putin, counted on. Right now, Ukraine probably has the most capable military in Europe, and, pound for pound, the world. But, it needs feeding in the form of supplies, ammunition and air defense weaponry. What’s required is a fraction of what we’re spending now to deport otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants.
As a stakeholder in Ukraine’s continued survival as a bulwark against Russian aggression, we need to invest in that stake. It’s in our interest to do so.
