As the leader walked across the White House lawn in military fatigues, much was on his mind. His country was under attack; an unprovoked attack from a neighboring power. A peace deal had been signed, but then brazenly violated. His country found itself at war and in desperate need of conscripts, weaponry, and other military aid. Though the US had not provided ground troops, it had poured billions of dollars into helping build up its military even though an ocean separated the USA from the conflict. The two men did not see eye to eye on everything; there were competing policy priorities weighing down on the US President and the public was not fully onboard with supporting a foreign war.
No, I’m talking about Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I’m talking about Winston Churchill.
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Two years ago, I traveled to Kyiv on the one-year anniversary of the war against Russia. I invite you to revisit that trip report today. As I wrote then:
I have friends and associates in Ukraine. The war is real. The destruction is real. Now I’ve seen it first-hand. Many have lost all their material possessions. Families have been separated. There is no evidence that Ukrainians were conducting ethnic cleansing in eastern Ukraine such that a Russian invasion was justified. It was a lie..the same kind of lies that Adolf Hitler used to justify his war of aggression. If we fail to see that, we risk letting history repeat itself. Will we learn this time? Will we pay the upfront cost of arming and supporting Ukraine to avert even more expense and pain later?
> Read More: My Trip To Ukraine In The Midst Of War
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NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was formed to:
- deter Soviet expansionism
- prevent the revival of European militarism
- promote political and economic stability in the North Atlantic region
- safeguard the freedom of its peoples
The United States and its allies realized that the cost of not doing so could be even higher; that it was the solemn duty of the United States of America to promote stability and order by entering into an alliance that would diminish any return of or on Russian expansion. No, the USA or European powers never had their eyes on taking Russian land (a curious paranoia of the Putin regime), but they certainly wanted to prevent the Iron Curtain from spreading.
And it wasn’t Ukraine that invaded Russia in 2014…it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. The complex geopolitics of Crimea and the former Soviet SSR called Ukraine are not lost on me. But it seems to me the point that Zelenskyy was trying to make in the Oval Office yesterday was that Russia and Ukraine did sign a ceasefire to end that conflict only to see Putin and Russia ignore it in 2022 when Ukraine was invaded.
Outrage over warning that Putin could become a US worry despite an ocean of separation should not be lost on anyone who has studied history. Nazi Germany was always a threat to the USA…stopping that aggression was not wasteful depsite so many domestic needs.
Russia is now warning about human rights violations in Estonia…the same lies it used to justify its invasion of Ukraine. The same lies Hitler used to justify his invasion of Poland….despite a peace treaty.
Capitulation does not work against a rogue regime, especially one determined to re-assert its role on the world stage.
And concerning saying “thanks” or being ungrateful, I reference again the solemn duty of the United States and think of my own role as a father. I do not doubt that Ukraine is grateful for US assistance, but assisting Ukraine furthers US interests…it is not charity. And weakening the Russian military is payback…so is the drone technology that Ukraine has so smartly pioneered that the US will be able to use in future conflict.
It is my duty to clothe and feed my children, those precious souls that have been entrusted to me. I don’t need their thanks because my duty as a protector and defender is to promote their well-being. The USA has a sacred role in promoting global stability and the preservation of democratic norms and until now, has effectively, albeit imperfectly, strived to advance that aim.
But lately it seems like up is down, left is right, and right is wrong.
It’s not too late. It’s not too late for Zelenskyy to return to the White House. Maybe he needs to spend three weeks there, like Churchill did with Roosevelt in 1941..a beautiful time and beautiful chapter in world history that solidified the relationship between the two allies.
To borrow the words of Churchill in his 1941 address to Congress:
We have therefore without doubt a time of tribulation before us. In this same time, some ground will be lost, which it will be hard and costly to regain. Many disappointments and unpleasant surprises await us. Many of them will afflict us before the full marshalling of our latent and total power can be accomplished.
As Churchill said, it is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the Ukrainian and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.
Will we heed his warning?
