(Official Washington Examiner editorial, Dec. 13) Congress should not break for Christmas before providing more aid for Ukraine. Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is in Washington this week, is an ally fighting for the right reasons, in the U.S. national interest, against a thuggish, anti-American regime.
Ukrainian aid need not be included in the same package with much-needed border reforms. Granted, there is no excuse for President Joe Biden’s dangerously lenient border policies. The border security measures sought by Republicans are essential in their own right. They deserve their own much-needed debate. But that debate will take time, time Ukraine doesn’t have.
Ukraine flag in Kyiv.
Materially supporting Ukraine against Russia is a classic application of the peace-through-strength “Reagan Doctrine,” which called for the provision of weapons and aid to foreign fighters seeking freedom for themselves from enemies of the United States. The Reagan Doctrine did not require, but was especially appropriate, when those foreign fighters were Western in orientation. And of course the doctrine largely was aimed at blocking ruthless Soviet imperialism, which was different in degree but very little in kind from Vladimir Putin’s murderous imperialism.
It is an imperialism that, just as with Hamas’s attack on Israel, uses rape and torture as deliberate means of terror. It’s an imperialism that aims to destroy the very nationhood of a sovereign people who, albeit imperfectly, operate with a functioning republican form of government and a commitment to Western liberty.
While aid to Ukraine recognizes Ukraine’s moral superiority to its Russian invaders, it is not a sign of mere fuzzy-headed instincts toward charity. Russia remains a global threat to the U.S. and its allies. It aims to reconquer the free people of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia; it provides material support to terrorist Iran and crazily brutal North Korea; and it favors the Palestinian cause against Israel. Russia also foments anti-American activity by nefarious actors worldwide, and it even threatens U.S. interests in the Arctic Circle and in space…. [The full editorial is at this link.]
