Whatever the cause, war results in the worst behavior human beings are capable of. It’s always the same, rape, pillage, maiming and human beings killing other human beings on a massive scale. War makes clear that once the restraints of civilized expectations are removed, we are barbaric animals. However noble the intentions claimed, however interesting battles can seem in history books, war’s horror is so evident that it cannot be sanctioned, explained, or justified in any way. Not now. Not ever. Putin and the Russians should be universally condemned for invading the Ukraine. But we can also assume that by now some of the Ukrainian soldiers have matched the Russians in performing terrible deeds. War unleashes grotesque impulses on every side. All the more reason that we are entitled for our news to be told with more than the simplicity of a good guys vs. bad guys narrative.
Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine shattered a long period of peace, an acceptance of the status quo that had ruled European nations since the end of the cold war in 1991. It had been an important accomplishment. Over previous centuries, territorial disputes, escalating into war, ravished nation after nation leaving millions dead, homes destroyed, and cities leveled. The breakup of Yugoslavia brought about the usual brutality, but other than that, the dividend of thirty odd years of peace and cooperation meant unprecedented prosperity. Putin shattered that. During the Communist era Russia was able to bully most of Eastern Europe, much like Hitler used its power to force obedience from smaller nations. In essence the Soviet Union was a typical empire, not different from what Hitler and Japan sought, or for that matter, not different than the Roman, Greek, British, Dutch, Spanish, Ottoman, or Aztec empires, a central powerful people ruling other people when they had the power to immpose it. Comparatively, Pax Americana was not brutal. Although periodically, when a friendly nation was in danger of being over run by Communists, American troops intervened. But, for the most part American influence, stemmed from trade and assistance that we offered, hoping that they too could benefit from the marvelous prosperity our way seemed to engender.
Russia’s invasion challenged all of that. Over the centuries, the wars between it and lesser powers had nothing to do with communism or capitalism It was an inevitable consequence of Russia’s need for its sphere of influence. The United States, with the Monroe Doctrine, mapped out an area it expected European powers to respect. Russia had its ideas, but then so did Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia, and Hungary, who were loosely associated at the close of the 15th century under rulers of the Jagiellon dynasty. Napoleon had designs on Eastern Europe and Russia. In more modern times Germany also felt entitled. Over the centuries many others gave it a try. Lithuania, together with Poland ruled half of Russia and the Ukraine.
The wars for dominance did not only involve Eastern Europe. It ws everywhere. Over the centuries all of Europe was up for grabs. Spanish, Savoyard, and papal troops supported the Catholic cause in France against Huguenots aided by Protestant princes in England and Germany. In the Low Countries, English, French, and German armies intervened; and at sea Dutch, Huguenot, and English corsairs fought the Battle of the Atlantic against the Spanish champion of the Counter-Reformation. In 1588 the destruction of the Spanish Armada against England was intimately connected with the progress of the struggles in France and the Netherlands. Archduchess Isabella, regent of the Spanish Netherlands, expressed in a letter to her master Philip IV in 1623: “It would not be in the interests of Your Majesty to allow the Emperor or the Catholic cause to go down, because of the harm it would do to the possessions of Your Majesty in the Netherlands and Italy.”
ETC.
Century after century of the same. The strong ruling the weaker. Irish lords once dominated England and vice versa in the following centuries. It was never ending.
When borders were settled with the end of the cold war in 1991 it seemed all of that had been put to rest. Putin invasion brought it back into play. Throughout Europe, not just in Eastern Europe but the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Italy in every direction the reverberations of Putin’s attack on the Ukraine sent out alarms. It was time to rearm. For most of its neighbors, the invasion of Ukraine was seen as analogous to Hitler’s attack on Czechoslovakia. Allow aggression in the Ukraine and it will whet Putin desire for more. This point of view is understandable. He is messing with geopolitical conclusions that had seemed permanent. But there is an entirely different way of looking at it. Putin’s contends that Ukraine is not like the rest of Europe, that the Ukraine is part of Russia. The conflict is a civil war. His claims are treated as if they are coming from a madman, a grandiose delusion based on Putin’s inability to live with Russia’s diminished place in the world. While it is extremely difficult for me to have affection for a nation allied with Iran, Putin arguments are not ridiculous. Dismissing Putin as a mad man avoids this war’s particulars.
Here are simple facts. Khrushchev who led Russia from 1953-1964 was, in essence, a Ukrainian. Although ethnically Russian, he was born and raised close to the border of the Ukraine. His father worked in the Ukraine throughout his life. And Khrushchev’s early career and political successes were all in the Ukraine Communist Party. He expressed his fondness for them repeatedly. Leonid Brezhnev who followed him was a Ukrainian. He led Russia from 1964-82. Chernenko, a Ukrainian was Brezhnev’s chief of staff. He also led the Soviet Union from 1984-85. During the Brezhnev era, the head of both the KGB and the Defense ministry were Ukrainians. In essence, for a very long time, Ukrainians ruled Russia. Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985-92. His mother was Ukrainian. His wife’s father was Ukrainian. In the West, he is thought of as our hero. He ended the Cold War. He ended Communism.
Another fact: Gorbachev felt that Russia was correct to take back Crimea. Within the Soviet Union many Russian were furious, when in 1954, Ukraine aficionado, Nikita Khrushchev gave it to the Ukraine. Crimea had been a part of Russia from 1783 until Khrushchev’s gift. A poll of the Crimean public in Russian-annexed Crimea was taken by the Ukrainian branch of Germany’s biggest market research organization, GfK, on 16–22 January 2015. According to its results: “Eighty-two percent of those polled said they fully supported Crimea’s inclusion in Russia, and another 11 percent expressed partial support. Only 4 percent spoke out against it.”[382][383][384] It wasn’t just over Crimea that Gorbachev disagreed with our point of view. Gorbachev was furious with the United States for going back on many of their agreements regarding the resolution of the Cold War. Before he died he also made clear that he thought Putin is a trustworthy leader defending Russian interests. For his support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, he was banned from the Ukraine.
A simple question: If the Ukraine is unequivocally not part of Russia how did the Russians allow so many non-Russians to lead their nation? Obviously, Putin did not dream up his claims about the Ukraine. For many of those years the Ukrainians were considered Russian. Not that there weren’t plenty of tensions and a history of bloodshed between them, just as there is between Mississippi and Massachusetts. But briefly, in 1991, the Ukraine was the third largest nuclear power in the world. A huge number of Russia’s nuclear weapons were in the Ukraine. Not something we would expect Russia to do if it considered the Ukraine a foreign nation. We have all heard of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia. Actually Chernobyl is in the Ukraine. Putin claims that for a very long time we have been trying to pry the Ukraine away from Russia. Of course we have. Does that mean Putin was entitled to go to war when Ukrainian leaders wanted to complete the break, become a member of NATO, part of an alliance specifically designed to oppose Russia.
Putin is not a good guy. I’m inclined to believe those stories of poisonings of his political enemies, whether he personally ordered them or not. I suspect his gang of supporters has done many other terrible things. Probably the recent air plane crash killing Prigozhin, the leader of an army who, for a while, sought to overthrow Putin, was not an accident. I assume, like everyone else, that Alexei Navalny was murdered.There is nothing to like about the political process in Russia. They are not able to rise above violence as a way to settle political disagreement. This is not the United States where we tar and feather political opponents, tell an incredible number of lies, try to destroy those who are hated, but by using our mighty media, not literally by killing them. For now, and probably for the foreseeable future this means Russia is less civilized than us.
We saw when the Serbs and Crimeans went to war how barbaric political battles become. Long time neighbors killed each other. Saudi Arabia’s political process is violent. A journalist opponent of the rulers was killed, his body chopped up, put in suitcases. During the Viet Nam era, nations in South East Asia had numerous killing fields. Millions were slaughtered. Again and again many Latin American nations have solved political disputes with violence. European kings and princes once regularly beheaded opponents, including family members. There was frequent violence between sons, brothers and their henchmen. Except for our Civil War we have managed to avoid that. Still, there is a lot to dislike about the way our democracy has been functioning in recent years. The first casualty of war is truth. On that basis what has been going on in America is a war. Those on the Left are demonized by those on the Right and vice-versa. Lies pile on top of lies from both the right and left. The Democrats, with their media allies, tried to immobilize Trump’s election with the Russian collusion lies. Trump tried to throw out the election in 2020 with his lies.
The Ukraine is presented similarly with propaganda that is inevitable in wars. Flag waving is the only acceptable attitude. Our side is heroic. The Ukrainians are venerated. They are noble, kind, brave, suffering human beings, not far from sainthood. Every time Zelenskyy speaks to legislators in the West he gets standing ovations. Presumably, the very real foul behavior of the Ukrainians in the past has long since been forgotten. Today, these people with a ghastly history of violence and corruption, have become very fine people, in today’s heroic parlance, victims. Their enemies, our enemies, are crazy animals. They are rapists, murderers, and beasts. We are told Russia’s soldiers are stupid to agree to the suicide demanded of them. When they bring orphaned Ukrainian children for care in Russia we claim they are kidnapping them. When the Russian people show their support for Putin, our explanation is that they have been duped. We cite Putin’s critics as evidence that he is barely holding on to the leadership of Russia.
The lies of our politicians and our media are intolerable. They have completely lost our trust. But Russia’s political process is worse. Far worse. It has not returned to a society where the KGB once grabbed people out of their apartments at night, never to return. People were too frightened to object. Nor has an iron curtain been erected keeping its people imprisoned, shooting those trying to escape. Russia’s citizens can leave their country and travel freely. They have access to the West’s media. The process is very flawed by our standards, but it is not helpful to characterize their politicians as madmen, and dismiss their claims as outrageous. We are entitled to hear the whole story when we go over why the Ukraine was attacked.
Half Ukrainian, half Russian, before he died, Gorbachev grieved over the war. He saw the two people as brothers with a long historical bond. Gogol was Ukrainian. So was Trotsky. Sergei Prokofiev, the great Russian composer, was born in the Ukraine. Fiddler on the Roof, which we all assume was about a Russian shtetl took place in the Ukraine. Little Odessa in Brooklyn described a neighborhood of Russian and Ukrainian people freely mingling. People moved there to be among their own. My wife’s grandfather always described himself as Russian. It now turns out he was Ukrainian. Zelensky’s grandfather, was a colonel in the Russian army during World War II. He grew up speaking Russian as did his parents. Sholoim Aleichem was Ukrainian. There are monuments to him in Lviv and Moscow. Solzhenitsyn’s mother was Ukrainian. So were the genius Russian pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, violinists David Oistrach, Nathan Milstein. Soviet Cosmonauts Georgy Beregovoy, Leonid Kizim, Anatoly Levchenko, Anatoly Filipchenko, Anatoly Artsebarsky, Igor Volk, Pavel Popovich, Verkhovna Rada, Georgy Dobrovolsky–all were Ukrainians. Although Tchaikovsky was for the most part Russian, his paternal grandfather was Ukrainian and over 30 of his works have Ukrainian subjects or incorporate Ukrainian songs or melodies. His sister lived in the Ukraine and he spent most summers there. He lived there from 1876-1879. He composed Swan Lake, the Sleeping Beauty and Euegene Oregin while living in Kamianka, Ukraine. It should also be noted that our great Ukrainian hero, President Volodymyr Zelensky took part in a petition to drop Tchaikovsky’s name from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. The government viewed the composer as a tool of the Kremlin’s imperial design. Streets honoring the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin have been renamed as part of the attempt to derussify the Ukraine.
Yes our support of the Ukrainians is to “protect democracy.” But the war’s origins is derived from far more complicated factors. A good many Western Ukrainians, apparently a large majority, have considered themselves European and hated Russia over the centuries. But what is and is not the Ukraine has been literally all over the map throughout its history. The Western portions of the Ukraine, Galicia and Volhynia were once part of Poland. Like Russia today, Poles didn’t think of the Ukraine as a real country. From the point of view of ordinary citizens in that part of the world, they have not been that far off. I knew this Hungarian American family who see themselves as totally Hungarian They spoke Hungarian. They were Hungarians. It now turns out they actually lived in what is now the Ukraine. Parts of today’s Ukraine were considered Czechoslovakian, other parts Rumanian.
For much of their history most Ukrainians didn’t think of themselves as part of a Ukraine nation. They were Hungarians Poles, Russian, Slavs, Tartars, Cossacks. It wasn’t just in the Ukraine. The idea of what is, and is not, a nation hadn’t been clear in much of Europe until the 19th century. It was at that point that being part of a “nation” ascended as the dominant way of viewing territories. Just as Venetians and the Milanese started thinking of themselves as Italians, and Prussians, Saxons, and Bavarians (although they had gone to war against each other at various times) began to think of themselves as German. Hitler wasn’t German. He was an Austrian. Ukrainian nationalists believed they should be part of their own nation. It was an idea, a call to action rather than something that actually existed. But clearly it was a dangerous thought from Poland’s point of view.The Poles tried to suppress Ukrainian nationalism wherever it popped up. They closed down Ukrainian speaking schools. They tried, not always nicely, to turn the Ukrainians into Roman Catholics. Although throughout its history other peoples occupied their lands and considered the Ukraine part of their country, Ukrainian intellectuals starting thinking of themselves as Ukrainian. They were spreading an idea, a nation of Ukrainian people.
Russia was hated as much as Poland. They also tried to suppress Ukrainian nationalism. But that was not their worst sin. In the 1930’s Stalin viciously tried to impose collective farming, shooting any one opposed. This led to the greatest non-wartime famine in history. A million Russians starved to death because of these Moscow city boy ideas about the best way to farm. Four million Ukrainians starved to death. Russia grabbed what grain there was and shipped it to the Soviet Union. After Russia liberated the Polish ruled part of the Ukraine, many Ukrainians in turn greeted the Germans in World War II as liberators from the Russians. At first the Jews and the Russian Bolsheviks were linked as the enemy. But rapidly it became all Jews. Local Ukrainians joined the Germans 10 days after they took over Kviv, at a nearby ravine, Babi Yar, slaughtering 33,771 Jews and any Russians still lingering in Kviv. Subsequently, 1.5 million Jews were killed throughout the Ukraine, according to historian, Erich Haberer, mostly by Ukrainians rather than Germans themselves. Not just Jews. In 1943, Ukrainian nationalists, with the Nazi’s help, also slaughtered 60,000 to 100,000 men, women and children of Polish origin who were living peacefully in villages in the Ukraine.
Putin often speaks of the Ukrainians as Nazis, seemingly a ludicrous accusation considering that their leader is Jewish. Yes, a charmer from show business, a television personality is the public persona of the Ukrainians nation’s cause. He was elected by a majority of the Ukrainian people. But an appreciable number of Ukrainians with power, were Nazi affiliated. They still occupy a prominent role in their society. The 1943 killing of Poles was initiated and directed by a radical Ukrainian nationalist Stephen Bandera and his Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Led by Stephen Bodera the murders were committed with incredible cruelty. Many were burnt alive or thrown into wells. Axes, pitchforks, scythes, knives and other farming tools rather than guns were used in an attempt to make the massacres look like a spontaneous peasant uprising. In the blood frenzy, the Ukrainians tortured their victims with unimaginable bestiality. Victims were scalped. They had their noses, lips and ears cut off. They had their eyes gouged out and hands cut off and they had their heads squashed in clamps. Woman had their breasts cut off and pregnant woman were stabbed in the belly. Men had their genitals sliced off with sickles. All the horrible things described about the treatment of Jews during that era were also done to the Poles
In 2016 the Polish parliament instituted the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against citizens of the Second Republic of Poland, at the same time labelling the massacres an act of genocide. But there has been no public apology. Indeed, Bodera is seen as a national hero. A Ukrainian stamp commemorates his heroism. There is a 22 ft statue of him in Lviv in front of the Stele of the Ukrainian Statehood a towering monument to Ukrainian identity. Although their common fear of Russia has, for now, united them, the issues between the Poles and Ukrainians is far from over. In 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law allowing people who denied the heroism of Ukrainian national resistance fighters to be punished. The Poles passed a bill making it a criminal offence to deny the “crimes of Ukrainian nationalists”. Zelenskyy has gone to a Polish Church, supposedly as an act of contrition for what the Nazi Ukrainians did to the Poles. But the towering statue remains. Bodera is a hero.
It should also be noted that these wonderful people were the mainstay of the Nazi’s death camps. Ukrainians were said to outnumber the Germans 10 to 1 at Sorbitol. It was similar in other death camps. Not every nationality would have been able to supply so many guards equal in cruelty to the Ukrainians that herded the Jews. And while Zelenskyy, during his election campaign, intended to clean up Ukrainian’s notorious corruption with his dream team of reformers, the dream team was gone after a few months in office. He made peace with a rotten bunch of people.
In complete contrast Russian speaking Eastern Ukrainians were the mainstay of the Ukrainian underground fighting the Nazis. As a Jew I can’t help sympathizing with them since, together with the Russians, they eventually protected the Jews remaining alive. Since 2014 Eastern Ukrainians have been fighting the rest of Ukraine in a civil war seeking independence. There are reports of them committing war crimes, just as there have been reports of the Ukrainian army killing unarmed prisoners. I assume the reports are not fiction.
I must admit that I am not a long time scholar of the Ukraine. I am using Google and Wikipedia, and news articles, so some of my information may be tainted by the sites. I am new to the subject and find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. And I will admit a contrary streak in me has caused me to find information tarnishing the current angelic presentation of Ukrainians. I welcome factual corrections from readers of this piece. However, regardless of my iconoclasm, and probably some mistaken facts, my main purpose is to emphasize how complicated the situation is. Even in educated quarters there has been little attempt to move beyond official attitudes. Part of that uniformity has become part of political correctness. It’s dangerous to stand alone. So very possibly I am exaggerating Ukrainian evil to level the playing field. But I will not apologize for wanting readers to take a better look at official attitudes.
Perhaps the complex issues are best illustrated by Russian Olympic champion ice skater, Victor Petrenko. Born in the Ukraine to Ukrainian engineers, only Russian was spoken at home. He was sent to a Russian speaking school in the Ukraine. Despite being born and educated in the Ukraine he never learned to speak Ukrainian fluently. After he was an Olympic champion, as an adult he organized many charitable events for Ukrainian children including a campaign to help those effected by Chernobyl (once more, in the Ukraine not Russia.)
In June 2008, he was elected to the Presidium of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation. In 2022, amidst Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia, Petrenko was fired from his post as vice president of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation (UFFK) and expelled from the organization for taking part in an event in Russia that was organized by Tatiana Navka a Ukrainian ice dancer who won gold for Russia in 2006. She is the wife of Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
One other relevant point of view. At the beginning of the war Thomas Friedman wrote an article in the New York Times, “This Is Putin’s War. But America and NATO Aren’t Innocent Bystanders” (Please use the link) He described the anger of George Kennan (the person often credited with our anti-Soviet policies during the cold war). Kennan, like Gorbachev, felt we were extremely (and unnecessarily) aggressive surrounding the Soviet Union with armed NATO allies. Friedman quoted Kennan in the 90’s: “I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves.”
Russia has repeatedly said it will end the war if its conditions are met by the Ukraine. They are: 1) Change its constitution to enshrine neutrality 2) acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory. 3) recognize the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states (now part of Eastern Ukraine). Despite the clarity of their demands, The New York Times’ Steven Erlanger wrote September 2 2023 “Putin has said a lot of times he won’t negotiate except on his own terms, which are Ukraine’s obliteration.” Not exactly an accurate description. They have repeatedly had referendums in Eastern Ukraine, demonstrating that they are supported by the population. Perhaps, as we claim, their referendums are phony. Perhaps not, but I am willing to consider the possibility that a majority of eastern Ukrainians want to be Russians. Certainly, even before the Russian soldiers joined them, there were a lot of Eastern Ukrainians willing to fight and die for their cause. Russia supplied the arms but not the soldiers.
It should be noted that the declared boundaries of the Ukraine, which I have noted have previously gone in all kinds of directions were made official in 1991 and agreed upon by Russia. But I am not sure how meaningful that was. Russia’s nationhood was far from secure. In that very year, during a coup attempt, their Parliament was surrounded by troops. Gorbachev, the ruler of Russia, was placed under house arrest. So, one may question what it meant for Russia to agree to the present boundaries. And as noted above, Gorbachev was furious with the United States for not living up to understandings we supposedly agreed to when he agreed to end the Soviet Union. It also should be noted that the leaders of the Ukraine, at the time, were basically loyal to Russia. It was inconceivable that they would want to join NATO as the current government has sometimes stated it desires.
The mention of Trump often goes off in wild directions. But it is not coincidence that Trump’s first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, was a strong advocate of better relations with Russia. So was Trump. And we know how Russia’s enemies in Washington were horrified. Indeed, with their false Russian collusion accusations they succeeded in demonizing Russia even before the Ukraine invasion.
On a purely speculative level, the other current alliances should be noted. Biden has had a special relationship with the Ukraine. His son cashed in on absurd rewards while his father was Vice-president. Without any qualifications he was paid a million dollar a year for board seat on Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Burisma was being investigated by Victor Shokin their top prosecutor. Shokin seized four large houses and a Rolls-Royce Phantom belonging to the company’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky. Biden insisted that this prosecutor be terminated. In a 2018 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, VP Biden bragged that he had threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees for Ukraine unless Shokin was sacked. It also should be noted that Trump pushed in the other direction. He intended to withhold military assistance unless the Ukrainians proceed with their Biden corruption investigation. For this Trump was rewarded with another impeachment drama.
Perhaps the slimy everyday corruption of politicians shouldn’t tarnish the lofty issues often cited in the Ukrainian war. Or perhaps they should for any perspective that might clarify how much of the lofty current war is related to these shenanigans and loyalties. It is worth considering.
To return to the war’s rhetoric, to reiterate, Putin’s demands don’t sound like the ravings of a mad man. Perhaps, if unopposed, he would try to conquer other former Soviet territories. He was very aggressive with Georgia, but here too, the situation is ambiguous. Stalin was a Georgian. Still it doesn’t matter. Reasons can always be found for any strategy. Certainly, as I noted, the alarmed reaction of Russia’s former occupied nations in Eastern Europe is understandable. The Ukraine’s relationship with Russia is different than theirs, but if history is our guide they have reason for their concern. The post-1991 relative peacefulness was put in danger with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But even before the invasion many nations have been rearming themselves because we may be reentering an era when not only Russia is a menace but each nation’s neighbors.
If the reader is becoming confused by my support for, and sympathy for the alarm their former satellites have shown about Russia, it is because I am somewhere in the middle. I am suspicious of our motives, their motives, everyone’s motives. There is reason to be suspicious, to weigh many points of view, to be especially suspicious that right and wrong isn’t the real issue as far as our foreign policy is concerned. From that perspective, let me be clear. Russia’s attack on the Ukraine is dangerous.
So, let me turn to that, indeed reverse where I was heading. Many have wondered if we have to win this war to counterbalance the humiliation of our retreat from Afghanistan. The war is demonstrating the superiority of our weapons. Regardless of Putin’s character, or the lack of democracy in Russia and China, we are entering a phase in history where war with them may be inevitable. It wouldn’t matter if they were true democracies or led by a king, or Communists, or whatever their government is. Our focus has shifted. Until Hamas’ attack on Israel we had grown tired of our war on terrorism. The danger seemed to have faded. Our focus had shifted to Russia and China. History brings powerful nations into wars of dominance. So now we have to win this war.
After our humiliating retreat from Afghanistan many leaders of other nations were weighing if we can be relied on. Not only can our influence be eradicated by our defeat, but our reliability as a friend must be questioned. Meaning we have to duke it out with Russia. We can’t lose still again. If this is our motive for strongly supporting Zelenskyy I am totally on the side of our leaders. A world where we are seen as a paper tiger is a far more dangerous world. We are already seeing the consequences of Biden’s America being seen as weak. Iran would have never dared to let Hamas attack Israel, nor supported the Houthis attacks on ships and Hezbollah increasing their missile attacks if Trump were president. Biden like Jimmy Carter has been rewarded with his softness by again facing hostages to be freed. Having so vociferously proclaimed the freedom of the Ukraine as a moral absolute we can’t back down. We may question whether that absolute commitment was necessary but once done, it is done. Certainly, greater honesty about how complicated the war is, might have brought more flexible options. It still might not be too late to broaden the debate.
But let me return to the moral dimensions of the war in the Ukraine. Leaving aside realpolitik, I believe the most important issue to note is that a lot more Ukrainians and Russians will be dying if the war goes on and on. We must quit presenting this war as a moral necessity, a fight against outrageous villains. Granted, if it isn’t presented that way no soldiers would be willing to die for their cause. And we wouldn’t be giving them billions of dollars, if the war was presented as simply a territorial dispute. But if we stopped seeing it that way maybe better solutions could be found. And frankly, the cynic in me can’t help commenting that once again we are having others fight our war.
Since 2014 Eastern Ukraine has been at war with Ukraine trying to be allied with, or part of Russia. No one considered it worthy of a major effort on our part. We accused the Russians of meddling. They lodged similar complaints about us. Russia’s invasion changed the public’s perception and perhaps it is true that Putin’s invasion is analogous to Hitler’s early aggressions. But the fact is, this war would not be continuing if it were not for the principles we are holding sacred (i.e. fighting for a democratic nation’s integrity) Minimizing our own war dead, getting others to do the fighting has been our strategy for a long time now. It was basically true in Iraq where only 4550 American soldiers died in the 15 years we were there. 2400 Americans lost their life in Afghanistan during a 22-year war. By comparison, when we were actually doing the fighting 33,000 Americans died in Korea, 58,000 in Viet Nam and 407,000 in World War II. And now our vehemence that we are fighting a righteous war, risks no American soldiers at all. To achieve our strategic objectives, I am not against it if this must be our marketing tool. But I hope our decision makers are not deluded by their own propaganda.
Moreover, I wonder how Ukrainians will view their many deaths to come, whether they would be this steadfast if there weren’t American propagandists and money running the show, promising, expecting victory. There are already stories of Ukrainians, who don’t want to fight, being unable to get out of the Ukraine. Is this another example of how American wealth gives us temporary illusions of our wisdom? We rolled into Afghanistan and routed the Taliban. They fled to Pakistan, but they knew what I fear the Russians already know. Our reliability is questionable. Our persistence evaporates. We eventually forget why we have gone to war. I hope we will not have a twenty year war in the Ukraine, but unfortunately that might be ahead for us. Our hands will be dirtied by the bloodshed to come even if American soldiers are not dying. Our good guy/bad guy polarization is destructive enough in our own domestic politics but extending it to a war is a worse sin. It may entangle us in a long war, a holy war that is non-negotiable, one that will bring many more deaths, rather than a truce, where concessions are made on the basis of both sides understanding the other’s grievances and legitimate desires.