The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Doug Pickrell
In 1994, in exchange for Ukraine signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons, the U.S., Russia and other countries signed the Budapest Accords, which gave Ukraine security assurances ‘to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.’
In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, in blatant violation of the Budapest Accords. In response, the G8 suspended Russian membership and imposed economic sanctions on Russia.
Three years ago Russia attacked Ukraine with genocidal intent (this has been meticulously documented), and spectacularly failed to conquer Ukraine. If Russia had succeeded, the Russian occupiers would have mimicked the Russian strategy during and after WWII, of murdering anyone connected with the military, or the government, or a university, or a Western-oriented business, and the occupiers would have installed a coterie of sycophants. This would have led to a massive diaspora of angry Ukrainians with weapons and military training. After gorging on his conquest, Putin would have scheduled the next step in his plan to resurrect the former glory of the Soviet Union.
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Putin narrowly failed because of real-life heroes like Ukrainian President Zelensky, who in response to a U.S. offer of transportation to safety, famously replied, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” The Biden administration rallied allies to impose stiff sanctions on Russia. Russia has subsequently degenerated into a criminal totalitarian enterprise, plagued by a talent diaspora, double-digit inflation and interest rates, and total dependence on oil and weapons production.
Ukraine has paid a terrible price for its freedom and the defense of Western values. The youth of Ukraine, that country’s future, are being killed and wounded at staggering rates. If the moral high ground has any value, Ukraine deserves our respect and support.
President Trump has unconscionably thrown Putin, a despot and war criminal, a lifeline. Some weeks ago Trump agreed to hold joint talks with Putin, excluding the EU and Ukraine. In a breathtaking display of total incompetence, contrary to `art of the deal’ principles, prior to even beginning negotiations, Trump disassociated the U.S. from the Budapest Accords, he rejected Ukraine’s claim to its territorial integrity, and he criticized sanctions and the exclusion of Russia from the G8.
More recently Trump has stopped weapons support for Ukraine, and denied Ukraine access to surveillance of Russian forces. Trump personally dislikes Zelensky — he blames him for his first impeachment — and he is doing everything in his power to cause Zelensky to fail. Never mind the fate of the Ukrainian people.
Several weeks ago many commentators compared Defense Secretary Hegseth’s abandonment of Ukraine at the February Munich Security Conference to Neville Chamberlain’s abandonment of Eastern Europe to Hitler in 1938.
In the March 8 Star, Jonah Goldberg writes that Trump “wants to be able to say he delivered peace. He couldn’t care less whether it’s a durable peace. He just wants the talking point.” This is naive.
Putin and Trump are depraved bedfellows. Their aim is to carve the planet into
spheres of influence: Putin gets his hard-earned 20% of Ukraine, Belarus, and perhaps other former Soviet states, while we get Greenland, Canada, Panama, the Gaza Riviera and the right to shake down Ukraine in its death throes for its mineral wealth. The Trump/Putin axis is more comparable to the notorious Hitler/Stalin 1939 axis, which divided Poland and Finland, and precipitated WWII.
In a few weeks, Trump has turned the U.S. into a pariah state. We can no longer be trusted or respected. This is a sickening national transformation. In an era of global problems like failed states, climate change and AI, the world needs norms and alliances, not another predator.
As a middling student of history, I was long baffled by Hitler’s seduction of the people of Germany, and the Reichstag’s abdication of responsibility. It is now clear that this was not a historical aberration. Action for the sake of action apparently has a primeval appeal; the incident moral depravity is just a cost of the entertainment.
We cannot allow history to repeat itself.
Traditional Conservatives and Democrats must align to defend NATO and Ukraine, and snap this bond between Trump and Putin.
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Doug Pickrell is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and a fourth-generation Arizonan.
