What Do We Stand For?
The way the war in Ukraine ends matters. The seeds for future Russian aggression will be planted if Putin’s war results in advancing Russia’s conception of security. It is also important to remember that the war is not simply a war between Russia and Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accurately said that the West is engaged in a proxy war with his country. Though the US has not put boots on the ground, words and deeds have made the war in Ukraine America’s war too. The war is Russia against the West. Any settlement that rewards Russian aggression is a defeat for the West. The United States will not be spared another defeat by switching sides. Doing so will amplify the defeat.
Any settlement must consider that Putin has ruled out territorial concessions and demands that Kyiv abandon its NATO membership ambitions. The Russian president wants to limit the size and power of Kyiv’s military, ensure the country’s permanent neutrality and control the direction of its political future. Putin has also argued the people of the two countries share a common history and identity and Ukraine had been unjustly severed from Russia through the work of anti-Russian forces and must be reunified. For Putin, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is about correcting an event 30 years ago that he believes never should have taken place. A just outcome seems elusive.
The barbaric, genocidal, and illegal actions of Russian leaders and their troops should have convinced US leaders that Russian aggression cannot stand. Framing any war in moral terms is essential. Moral clarity must inform policy options. The United States did not clearly articulate the justice behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when doing so should have been easy. Lost wars resulted. Perhaps losing wars has become routine, even acceptable to US leaders. Vladimir Putin seems to understand this.
In the narrowest sense, Ukraine is a democratic ally whose very existence is threatened by an authoritarian dictator in Russia. In a broader sense, the war in Ukraine is about the type of world we want to live in. It is about the post-World War II rules-based international order. Mr. Putin is dictating events and, so far, the U.S. is going along. What ultimately happens to Ukraine will influence future actions by Russia, China, and other adversaries.
But the scope of the conflict is even more onerous. In their expansive joint manifesto, Messrs. Putin and Xi Jinping outlined the world they intend to create; one where their countries would take their rightful places in it. NATO would be diminished. Military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, would no longer be deployed in ways that “threaten” Russia and China. Countries formerly part of, or allied with, the Soviet Union would not align with the West. Those already aligned will be re-absorbed by Russia by force, if necessary. Issues such as democracy and human rights would be redefined by Russia and China as their spheres of influence are expanded and the world is compelled to accept their imperial claims. In other words, the Putin-Xi Manifesto is a serious threat. This clash between tyranny and liberty is, arguably, the moral test of our time and is on display in Ukraine.
The nature of reality is also on the line. Putin tells lies for power. His control is based on the production of fiction, murdering political opponents, and outlawing language contrary to official state views. Denazification, NATO’s intention to deny Russia its rightful place in the international arena, Ukraine being on the cusp of joining NATO, Ukrainians killing their Russian speaking citizens, Ukraine not being a legitimate, independent state, the West starting the war, claiming to prevent genocide while committing it, and Putin’s warped interpretation of history are but a few examples of distorted reality. If Russia wins, the truth dies along with the hundreds of thousands of people who perished defending Ukraine.
Finally, a Russian victory would strengthen tyrants whose visions of geopolitics render any concept of a liberal democratic order obsolete. Russian actions in Ukraine make the case for what is at stake. In areas under Russian control, male Ukrainians have been murdered or forced to become cannon fodder and die at the front. Women have been raped. Millions of Ukrainians have been forcibly deported to Russia, many of them women with young children, to eliminate their Ukrainian heritage and force them to accept being Russian or face prison and torture. Russia has destroyed Ukrainian archives, libraries, universities, and publishing houses to erase Ukraine. The war is about the future of a democracy and the principle of self-rule, and the rule of law. A just settlement would confirm this. A settlement that rewards Russian aggression would destroy hope for countries working towards a democratic future and the rule of law.
President Zelensky and the Ukrainians chose to fight for democracy. Their resistance is saving the West perhaps more than the West is saving Ukraine. The courage of the Ukrainian people and their President, and the severity of the threat to all democracies, demand confronting the bear. If Ukraine loses, who will we be when this war is over? If the United States is a great power, it is time to act like one.
