American patriotism calls for continued support for Ukraine
Seeing President Joe Biden walking the streets of Kyiv on Monday, side by side with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was awe inspiring. After all, these streets were the primary targets that the cowardly war criminal and dictator Vladimir Putin sought to control one year ago.
The warning signs of the invasion were apparent for months as Putin amassed troops and equipment at the Ukrainian border. When the invasion finally began, most experts expected Kyiv to fall within days. The people of Ukraine, armed in some cases with nothing more than small arms and homemade explosives, had other ideas.
One year later, Ukraine remains free and is still fighting. With the continued support of the U.S. and our NATO allies, Ukraine can win this war once and for all.
Zelenskyy and Ukraine have laid bare Putin’s propaganda about the might of the Russian military. They’ve exposed Putin as an incompetent and corrupt liar who will stop at nothing to achieve his imperial ambitions, even if it means bankrupting and oppressing his own people. And the Ukrainians have shown the world that standing up to bullies and dictators is essential to the preservation of democracy.
Ukraine’s successes are secure enough that the president of the United States traveled to Kyiv to reinforce his commitment to the Ukrainian people in person. Now, it’s up to the American people to reinforce our commitment to defending freedom and democracy, protecting innocent civilians and sending a clear message that war crimes and crimes against humanity have no place in the modern world.
Sadly, these views are not shared by some vocal members of the Republican Party.
While Biden was becoming the first president since Abraham Lincoln to enter an active combat zone not under the control of the U.S. military, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis was on Fox News saying that U.S. aid to Ukraine was little more than an “open-ended blank check.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA., told CNN that she’d like to see immediate cuts to spending on aid to Ukraine. Donald Trump sent a fundraising letter accusing Biden of putting Ukraine ahead of America. And Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-fla., introduced a resolution seeking to end U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Apparently for Desantis, Greene, Trump and Gaetz, freedom and the national security of the U.S. and NATO only matter if it doesn’t involve too much money. They echo voices from another time that said the Nazis weren’t our problem either.
They are Putin apologists — preferring the Russian dictator over U.S. intelligence even — and their willingness to use Ukraine as a pawn in their personal and partisan political ambitions is shameful and dangerous.
By challenging continued U.S. support for Ukraine, Desantis, Greene, Trump and Gaetz are making a domestic political calculation that, if successful, will destroy Ukraine and profoundly threaten U.S. and NATO security.
If Putin believes he can defeat Ukraine simply by waiting a little longer and increasing the price tag, he will have no reason to withdraw and end the brutal conflict. Nor will he have any reason to believe that other countries can’t be his for the taking in the future.
Remember, when his ill-conceived military invasion failed, Putin did not retreat. Instead, he targeted hospitals, apartment complexes, food transportation systems and civilian water and power infrastructure in a blatant attempt to maim, starve and freeze Ukrainian civilians into submission.
Since then, the UN has confirmed nearly 9,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine. The unconfirmed estimate is more than 35,000. That’s roughly the same number of civilians that would be killed if the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened once a month, every month, for a year.
Those numbers don’t include the more than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in a war they didn’t want and in which they weren’t the aggressors. Rather, they were patriots who felt a moral duty to defend their country.
Helping to defend an innocent country from a murderous war criminal who targeted civilians was the right thing to do then, and it continues to be the right thing to do today.
Russia’s only path to victory is through a war of attrition that relies on the belief that the U.S. and NATO will grow tired of sending weapons and aid to Ukraine and that we will abandon Kyiv to the horde of criminals Putin calls an army.
Biden showed us this week that he is not ready to surrender eastern Europe to an authoritarian war criminal. But Biden cannot do this alone. The very principles that he, Zelenskyy and reasonable people across the free world are fighting for — freedom, democracy and self-determination — demand that we must stand up to those who threaten them.
Who would we be as Americans if we abandoned Ukraine today? How could we claim to be the land of the free and home of the brave if our bravery falters and we cower in the face of the fight for freedom against an outside aggressor?
When courageous Americans fought in World War II, we not only ushered in a new era of freedom and democracy across the planet, we also ushered in an era of unparalleled prosperity and ascendancy for the United States. Our place as a world leader stems from our courageous defense of enlightened values of freedom. The Trumps and Greenes and Desantises and Gaetzes of the world would have us diminished into shrinking into a corner.
Those who shamefully back tyrants and murderers because it serves their wallets and ambitions cannot lead. Leadership requires courage, not cowardice.
After one year of fighting, Ukraine is still standing, and the Russian military has resorted to a mandatory draft and using prisoners to fill its ranks. As long as Ukrainians continue to fight, we should courageously stand by their side and offer our support.
Those who shamefully back tyrants and murderers because it serves their wallets and ambitions cannot lead. Leadership requires courage, not cowardice.