Why America Must Support Ukraine

Their fight is our fight

There is a small but vocal minority of analysts and politicians who are working to end American and NATO support for the Ukrainian people. Some are on the MAGA right, some in libertarian projects funding by the Koch Foundation, some are on the anti-imperialist left and still see the United States as the main evil in the world today.

I think I understand their concerns. I have been an anti-imperialist since I first learned what the term meant. I opposed the misdirected and unnecessary “War on Terror” that brought us the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Decades earlier, I organized against the Vietnam War.

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

But this is a different era. Putin’s war on Ukraine is a very different war. So, when Newsweek emailed yesterday morning, asking if I could quickly write a piece on why the United States should support Ukraine, I did not hesitate.

Today, Newsweek features the article on its front page, as a debate between me and Daniel L. Davis, an analyst with the libertarian group, Defense Priorities, self-described as “the hub of realism and restraint.”

I make the arguments that we must support Ukraine for moral, security and economic reasons. I guess I always start with the moral. Maybe its my Catholic upbringing, or growing up in the decades right after World War II, but it has always seemed to me that the United States should be on the moral side of any conflict, trying to do what is right, not just what is profitable. The fact that we fall so far and so often from that standard should not deter us from continuing to try, from continuing to press for better policies.

In the case of Ukraine, morality and hard-headed security and economic concerns line up. We do not have to choose. That is one reason why there is now a broad united front in support of Ukraine from conservatives and neoconservatives to anti-imperialists like me who believe that to be anti-war today is to oppose Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Below, is the beginning of my essay. Please go over to Newsweek to finish the piece, if you’d like. As always, thank you for reading. Please leave a comment to share your views.

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Ukraine Must Win and We Must Make Sure of It

By Joseph Cirincione

Newsweek, June 6, 2023

America must help Ukraine for the same reasons we helped Europe defeat Nazi Germany: Their fight is our fight.

Thousands of Americans gave their lives 79 years ago to storm the beaches of Normandy. Their invasion brought down the Third Reich. Then-Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower told the troops in his brief Order of the Day for June 6, 1944, that their victory would "bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world."

The same is true today. Morality alone compels us to come to the aid of a democratic people unjustly invaded by a brutal, autocratic leader. If there were any doubts on that score, they have been answered by Russia's conduct in their occupation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is engaged in a sustained war of destruction. His army has leveled Ukrainian cities. They execute local elites and any men capable of military service. They use systematic rape of women and girls as an instrument of terror. They force millions to flee their homes and kidnap tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, sending them to Russia for "re-education" and adoption. These actions alone compel us to act.

Suppling Ukraine with the weapons, training, and intelligence it needs to defeat the invaders is not just morally right. Our own security depends on it. Other nations have led unjust invasions. We are guilty of this ourselves. But not since the end of World War II has a country tried to redraw the boundaries of Europe by force. If Putin's annexation of a neighboring country stands it will not just gravely weaken this core pillar of European security, it will be an open invitation for Putin to continue his imperialist crusade.

Please continue reading on the Newsweek site……