For anyone over the age of 40, I’d expect the threat of war and the specter of Russia nuking American cities was something real. The idea that Moscow were the “bad guys” and wanted to “bury” us wasn’t hyperbole. Just ask anyone a tad older who lived through the Cuba missile crisis.
So it’s somewhat perplexing that so many of today’s Conservatives have a rather ambiguous attitude to Russia invading its neighbor Ukraine.
That’s not to say there isn’t a strong isolationist streak in American political culture, from the original America First movement of the 1930s, to its revivified version, the Buchananism of the 1980s.
But what should those who still believe in America — unlike the Left — think about the carnage occurring in Europe right now, given that this week is the second anniversary of the bloodiest conflict on the continent since the end of World War Two?
First let’s address some of the most fallacious and unjustified responses to the war in Ukraine: that America and NATO are to blame.
The most outrageous version of this is the “biolabs” argument, which posits that America was funding secret bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine with which to attack Russia, and Putin invaded to pre-empt our dastardly plot. Really?
This Q-Anon-adjacent lunacy can be debunked in less than five minutes by asking one question: who actually built those labs? It was actually the Russians during the Cold War, when Ukraine was part of the USSR.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became independent again, Washington had a good idea — for once — why not spend some money to find out what our erstwhile enemy was making in those labs so we can protect ourselves, should Moscow still have stockpiles to use against us. Smart.
Then there’s the “America, and her allies provoked the war by enlarging NATO!” Again a strange accusation, given that NATO is not the Warsaw Pact. No one is forced to join, it’s not a colonial empire, it’s a club of free states. If you want to join and can contribute to the collective defense of all, you can. Even Boris Yeltsin toyed with Russia joining NATO just ask the Soviet Union was collapsing.
And how exactly did the inclusion of former Communist countries like Hungary or Poland “threaten” Russia, a nation with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world? Strange logic there. (RELATED: STEVE PAVLICK: The Budding Bromance Between Putin And Xi)
With that out of the way, let’s work out what patriotic Americans should think about a war which is on the doorstep of NATO, an organization we helped create. Should we help Kiev? Yes, but not how Biden, Mitch McConnell and the beltway-bandits have been doing it, billions and billions with zero transparency or accountability.
I know Ukraine is corrupt. There is no nation in the post-Communist space that isn’t corrupt. Trust me. My family is from the region, and I lived there for 15 years after the Berlin Wall fell. And Zelensky isn’t exactly helping his situation by postponing elections until the Spring. (Which, by the way, is not unheard of in a nation under martial law fighting for its very existence).
But being run by a corrupt elite isn’t a justification for another nation invading your territory. The Biden regime is perhaps the most corrupt government America has ever had, does that mean Chinese tanks should be allowed to roll down Pennsylvania Avenue? Hardly.
Whatever the former KGB colonel in the Kremlin says, Ukraine is a real country, a nation established by Kiev’s Viking ancestors long before the ethnic Russians created the Duchy of Moscow.
We didn’t cause this war. Neither did the Ukrainians. Putin has been openly planning his invasion and calling Ukraine illegitimate since he became President. And if 1776 is important to Americans, we should see its analogue in the men and woman, young and old, fighting for their freedom so far away.
And one last reminder: without other countries helping our brave revolutionaries fight the British, there would be no America today.
Send Ukraine what they need. No pallets of cash. Instead ammunition, Soviet equipment sitting unused in former Warsaw Pact states, and America’s peerless intelligence to be able to end the war faster and thus reestablish their national sovereignty, because Conservatives believe in national sovereignty. And “Liberty and Justice for all.”
Sebastian Gorka PhD served as Strategist to the President and remains a presidential appointee on the Defense Department National Security Education Board. He is the host of the national syndicated radio show AMERICA First and The Gorka Reality-Check on Newsmax TV. His latest book is The War for America’s Soul. Follow his SubStack here.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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